ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Pakistan yesterday said it would release 51 imprisoned Indian fishermen on humanitarian grounds, hoping that New Delhi will reciprocate the goodwill gesture as relations between the two nations warm.
The decision was taken at a high level meeting chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, according to a statement from his office.
Khoso “decided to release 51 Indian fishermen on humanitarian grounds as a gesture of goodwill. These prisoners have already served their sentences,” the statement said.
The prime minister expressed the hope that the Indian government will “reciprocate the gesture” and release Pakistani prisoners incarcerated in Indian jails, the statement said.
It said there were currently 482 Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails, while 496 Pakistani prisoners were being held in India.
“The government of Pakistan was awaiting the confirmation of national status of other Indian prisoners,” the statement added.
Khoso directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to initiate dialogue with India for the release of Pakistani prisoners and the return of Indian prisoners, the statement said.
Twin bomb attacks kill 13
Twin bomb attacks yesterday killed at least 13 people in northwest Pakistan, where the party of cricket star Imran Khan is forming a coalition government, officials said.
The incidents occurred in the Baazdara area of northwestern Malakand region, senior local administration official Amjad Ali Khan told AFP.
“The two blasts killed at least 13 people and wounded 48 others,” Khan said. “Eight of the injured people are in a critical condition,” he added.
The bombs were detonated by remote control but information was slow to filter through from the far-flung, mountainous area where there is no mobile phone coverage.
Administration official Imran Khan also confirmed the death toll had risen to 13.
“One blast took place inside a mosque and the second one occurred at the main gate of the second mosque,” he told AFP.
Northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is on the frontline of a nearly seven-year Taleban insurgency and abuts the semi-autonomous tribal belt where Pakistani troops are fighting against homegrown militants.
The attack came just one day after Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said it was forming a coalition with the right-wing religious Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and secular Qaumi Watan Party (QWP).
“Our province has badly suffered due to terrorism and we need unified efforts to bring peace,” Pervez Khattak, PTI’s nominee for provincial chief minister, told a news conference on Thursday.
PTI emerged as the largest party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by securing 35 out of the 99 directly elected seats in the provincial assembly. JI and QWP secured seven seats each.
