Fishing in Troubled Waters

There are several hundred prisoners caught in the crossfire between India and Pakistan. Fishermen from both countries are regularly arrested and their boats seized in the small area of water that is disputed territory between India and Pakistan, known as the Sir Creek. This publication documents the efforts to resolve the issues as part of a larger agenda to establish sustainable economic cooperation between the two countries. This report and compilation is going to press at a time when the murderous attack on Sarabjit Singh in Kot Lokhpat Jail near Lahore has taken his life and a similar attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanaullah Ranjay in Jammu jail has taken the Indo-Pak peace process itself two steps backward. When the respective governments are hiding behind nationalism and political leaderships left without any defense, we think it is essential for people of both countries to understand the plight of the lives of prisoners caught in the diplomatic crossfire between India and Pakistan. In this report, we are taking the issue of fishworkers, who mostly constitute a majority of such prisoners.

The issue of fishworkers arrests between India and Pakistan by Maritime Security Agency (MSA) of Pakistan dates back to the independence of Pakistan and India. However, the intensity or the number of people arrested has mostly been on the rise and by the late 1990s, it was alarmingly high. There was a situation where the number of Indian fishworkers arrested in Pakistan almost reached a thousand. It also gives a glimpse of significant dialogue processes between activists and governments of two countries that they have led to. The latter part of the publication comprises a collection of articles by various journals/magazines/newspapers over the last few years addressing some key aspects of the issue.

The compilation of articles include a wide ranging spectrum reflecting the irregularities from governments while handling this issue and the legal complexities that arise; analysis based on factual information about not just the arrests and releases but also details of the fishing areas and the disagreements regarding that; the severity of the situation changing over the years in terms of dialogues and disagreements along with the increasingly hostile attitude towards fishermen post the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack; the environmental aspects and the effect on the catch with the consistently rising pollution levels at the coastlines; the efforts being made by groups of activists from both sides and the circumstances, which the fisher community is faced with. Picking up the threads, a group of activists worked towards primarily reducing the number of fisher people in Pakistani and Indian jails. As a result, the figure in 2012 reached a historic low of less than a hundred fishermen belonging to the other side in their respective jails. It has been observed that the heightened tension at the Line of Control (LoC) between the two countries at the beginning of this year led to an increase in the number of arrests of fishermen and occasional relaxation in the number of arrests is no longer a matter of consideration. As we write this report1, the number of Indian fishermen inPakistan's Malir jail in Karachi is 342 and the number of Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails is 159.

According to the figures of the Government, submitted to the Supreme Court of India on February 12, 2013, a total of 297 Pakistani prisoners are in Indian jails which include 37 fishermen. However, the efforts made for the release of prisoners have been recognized at certain levels and there has been an order early this year by then Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rehman Malik2 according to which all Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails are to be released. This positive step is definitely encouraging for the ongoing dialogue process and demands are being made for the Indian Government to reciprocate in like manner.