"This decision of the government of Pakistan releasing Indian prisoners as a goodwill gesture is widely welcomed and appreciated by the members of civil society and media," said the Pakistan High Commission in a statement.
The decision to release fishermen comes at a time when LoC ceasefire violations in J&K seem to have become a matter of routine. According to Pakistan, an Army captain and a lance naik were killed last week by "unprovoked firing" by Indian Army. Pakistan even summoned Indian high commissioner T C A Raghavan to lodge protest.
The two countries were on the verge of restarting the dialogue process when five Indian soldiers were killed in an ambush on the Indian side of LoC on August 6. India hardened its position after that and has so far not responded to Pakistan's proposal for dialogue over Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project in the last week of August. India has so far also refrained from officially confirming the meeting between the two PMs at UNGA in September. This is despite Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif declaring at least twice — even after the LoC incidents — that he was looking forward to his meeting with PM Manmohan Singh.
0 comments:
Post a Comment