Staff Reporter / New Delhi
Despite tension along the border and at the political level, India and Pakistan on January 1 exchanged the list of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the ‘Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between India and Pakistan’.
The exchange is in compliance with a treaty that bars them from attacking atomic facilities in each other’s territory.
This exchange comes less than a year after the aerial skirmish over Kashmir in February 2018 and continued Pakistani criticism of the abrogation of Article 370.
Interestingly, the two countries have exchanged lists of their nuclear installations for the past 29 years without break despite outbreaks of tension such as the Kargil war and the attack on Parliament in 2001.
The Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between India and Pakistan was signed on December 31, 1988, during the tenures of Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister in India and Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan.
“Rajiv and I negotiated a remarkable treaty committing our nations not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities. This was the first nuclear confidence-building treaty between Pakistan and India,” Benazir Bhutto wrote in her book Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West.
The agreement is considered to be one of the ‘spin-offs’ from hectic negotiations between India and Pakistan after tension over Exercise ‘Brasstacks’. Brasstacks was a massive mobilisation of the Indian Army, along with Navy and Air Force units from late 1986 to early 1987, across the international border.
The two countries also exchanged the lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen of each country lodged in jails through diplomatic channels. India handed over lists of 267 Pakistan civilian prisoners and 99 fishermen to Pakistan who are in India’s custody.
Similarly, Pakistan has shared lists of 55 civilian prisoners and 227 fishermen in its custody, who are Indians or believed-to-be Indians. External Affairs Ministry said that this is in keeping with the provisions of the 2008 Agreement under which such lists are exchanged on 1st January and 1st July every year.
Government has emphasised on the need for early release and repatriation of civilian prisoners, missing Indian defence personnel and fishermen along with their boats from Pakistan’s custody. Pakistan was asked to expedite the release and repatriation of 4 Indian civilian prisoners and 126 Indian fishermen to India whose nationality has been confirmed and conveyed to Pakistan.
In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to 14 believed-to-be Indian civilian prisoners and 100 Indian fishermen who are in Pakistan’s custody. The Ministry of External affairs said, India remains committed to addressing, on priority, all humanitarian matters, including those pertaining to prisoners and fishermen in each other’s country.