ISLAMABAD: The governments of Pakistan and India have exchanged lists of their nuclear installations and prisoners in each other’s custody in line with existing bilateral treaties, the foreign ministries of both countries said on Thursday.
The development takes place amid strained ties between India and Pakistan following their four-day military conflict in May 2025. High-level engagement between officials of both countries remains mostly suspended as tensions persist.
India and Pakistan exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on Jan. 1 and July 1 each year under the Consular Access Agreement between them. They also exchange lists of nuclear installations under a 1988 agreement that prohibits attacks on each other’s nuclear facilities and requires annual notification of such sites on Jan. 1.
“The Government of Pakistan today handed over a list of 257 Indian prisoners (58 civil+ 199 fishermen) in Pakistan to the High Commission of India in Islamabad,” Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said during a weekly press briefing.
Andrabi said the Indian government is also sharing the list of Pakistani prisoners in its custody with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a press release that it had exchanged a list of 391 civil prisoners and 33 fishermen in its custody who are “Pakistani or believed-to-be-Pakistani.”
Andrabi said Pakistan had also exchanged a list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan with a representative of the Indian High Commission in the foreign office today.
“I understand that the Indian government is also sharing the list of Indian nuclear installations with our High Commission in New Delhi today,” he added.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs on its website later confirmed New Delhi had provided Pakistan with the list of its nuclear installations in line with their bilateral treaty.
The development took place a day after Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shook hands with Pakistan’s National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in Dhaka, marking the first high-level contact between officials of both countries since May.
Tensions escalated sharply after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22 last year that killed 26 people, most of them tourists. Pakistan denied involvement and called for an international investigation.
India fired missiles into Pakistan on May 7, saying it had targeted militant camps. The two sides then exchanged artillery fire, missiles, fighter jet strikes and drone attacks for four days before US President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire on May 10.
