PIPFPD writes to India, Pak govts demanding release of fishermen

The Pakistan-India Peoples’ Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) has written a joint letter to both the governments demanding immediate repatriation of fishermen, women prisoners and others not charged in serious cases, in the wake of pandemic Covid-19 sweeping the world. We are pleased to know that both our governments are taking significant steps to save the people. As you will agree, humanity, beyond national interests, must come first," said the joint statement signed by Dr IA Rehman, Mohammed Tahseen, Dr Syeda Hamid, Tapan K Bose and Jatin Desai. They said it is necessary to activate the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) to fight Covid-19 in a coordinated and comprehensive way. In this context, the meeting of Saarc leaders called by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the video was significant and is yielding results. Towards this, we urge both governments to hold the dialogue at the highest level and step back from border skirmishes and violence in land and water," they said. We request that such relief measures be made applicable in the case of prisoners from each other’s countries too. The family members are tense and are desperate to see their jailed relatives back with them. It is necessary that both countries release the prisoners and facilitate their transportation back through the Wagah/Attari border. It requested the Governments of India and Pakistan - to release and repatriate all fishermen languishing in each other country’s prisons as they entered each other’s water ‘inadvertently’ (charges against them are non-serious in nature), release and repatriate all women prisoners from the custody of each other, and release and repatriate all other prisoners who are not charged in serious cases.