ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India exchanged a list of their nuclear sites on Monday, under an agreement that bars both sides from attacking each other’s atomic facilities in the event of war, Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed in a statement.
The ‘Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities’ between the two countries was signed in December 1988. It requires that both sides inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities on Jan. 1 each year. The two countries have been exchanging the lists since 1992.
The two countries also exchanged lists of each other’s civilian prisoners under a 2008 agreement. The lists were handed over to officers of the Pakistani and Indian High Commissions in New Delhi and Islamabad, according to a statement by Pakistan’s foreign office.
“Pursuant to Article-II of the Agreement, the list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, today,” the foreign ministry said.
India and Pakistan exchange the lists of prisoners under the Consular Access Agreement of 2008, the foreign office said. As per the agreement, India and Pakistan are required to share the lists with each other on Jan. 1 and Jul. 1.
“The Government of Pakistan handed over a list of 231 Indian prisoners in Pakistan (47 civilian prisoners and 184 fishermen) to a representative of the High Commission of India in Islamabad,” the foreign office said. It added that as per the list sent by India, there are currently 418 Pakistanis in Indian jails (337 civilian prisoners and 81 fishermen).
The foreign office said it has urged India to release and repatriate all Pakistani civilian prisoners and fishermen who have completed their respective sentences and “whose national status stands confirmed.”
“A request for grant of consular access to missing defense personnel of 1965 and 1971 wars, and special consular access to 77 civil prisoners has also been made,” it said.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of three wars after independence from British rule in 1947 over the disputed former princely state of Kashmir. The first war was fought in 1947, the second in 1965, and a third, largely over what became Bangladesh, in 1971.
Both countries claim the disputed territory in full but control only parts of it. Tensions between the two countries escalated last month when India’s top court upheld a 2019 decision by New Delhi to scrap Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status.
