Indian and Pakistani fishermen, invariably straying into each others territorial waters are regularly arrested and imprisoned. While this issue has constantly been raised in so called confidence building talks between the two countries, it has yet to be resolved.

Only November 11th, noted Pakistani social worker Abdul Sattar Edhi visited Indian fishermen in Landhi jail and pleaded with the governments of Pakistan and India to release all fishermen who are currently imprisoned in the respective countries. He pointed out that most of the detained fishermen were the only breadwinners of their families and that, in some cases all male members of a family were behind the bars. In this situation, the affected families were faced with starvation, he added. Mr Edhi distributed Diwali and Eid gifts among the prisoners in Landhi jail where as many as 700 Indian fishermen have been kept. The gifts included boxes of sweets, clothes, ajrak, footware, etc.

Only recently, Pakistan released about 100 Indian fishermen from its prison as a goodwill gesture. Earlier, India had released a similar number of Pakistani fishermen. While such exchange of fishermen continues, there is no systematic resolution to this problem of fishermen arrested while fishing, given the close proximity of the borders of the two nations.

In the past, human rights officials dealing with this issue from both countries have agreed that this is a reflection of the attitude of the two states, of their apathy and of their obsession with power politics which keeps them from addressing humanitarian cases. "The two governments have not been able to resolve the question of prisoners in general," says I A Rehman, Director HRCP. He points out the manner in which the two countries dealt with people that stray across the border by mistake or with fishermen. It takes the governments months or even years to exchange information about such people and then further time is spent while this information is cross-checked. "And if the information does not tally, they refuse to take back the people in question," he says. "They need to evolve better mechanisms."

While the current thaw in relationships seems to have helped cricket matches, there is no respite for fishermen from both countries.