Pakistan decides to give counselor access to 102 Indian prisoners

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday decided to grant counselor access to 102 Indian prisoners, ARY News reported.

There are currently 537 Indian inmates in Pakistani jails. 100 of the Indian prisoners, who would be provided the counselor access at the end of this month, are in Karachi jails, while two others are in a Rawalpindi jail, said sources.

Diplomatic sources said that Pakistan had always talked to India in a responsible way but India kept doing childish conducts.

The sources expressed the hope that India would also give 347 Pakistani prisoners counselor access.

They said the measures would be beneficial for building trust between both the countries.

“Giving counselor access to Indian inmates will be Pakistan’s another step towards peaceful neighbourhood,” they maintained.

Two Pakistani nationals who were imprisoned in India crossed over to their home country through the Wagah-Attari border crossing after they were released by Indian authorities in December last year.

Indian border authorities had handed over the two men, Abdullah Shah and Muhammad Imran Warsi, to Pakistan Rangers officials at the border, sources in the paramilitary force said.

Shah, who hails from Swat’s Mingora city, was taken into custody by Indian officials from Attari in 2017 while Warsi, of Karachi, spent 10 years in Bhopal jail on charges of “forgery and spying” after travelling to India in 2004.

Warsi had gone to India to meet his Kolkata-based relatives when he was arrested by Indian police.