The Indian has approached the Islamabad high court seeking the release of four Indian prisoners who were convicted by military courts and have completed their sentences.
All the prisoners have served the sentences given to them by field general courts martial of the Pakistani military Birju Dung in 2007, Sonu Singh in 2012, Vigyan Kumar in 2014 and Satish Bhog in 2015.
They are currently in jails of Lahore and Karachi.
Pakistan’s foreign and interior secretaries as respondent the prisoners were arrested by the Pakistani military and charged under the Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act. It also said that the prisoners had contended that they hadn’t committed any offence and the entire proceedings initiated from the arrest till culmination in the ultimate conviction are an abuse of the process of law.
The petition also say that Pakistan’s Constitution states that no person shall be deprived of life or liberty in accordance with the law and asked the high court to facilitate the release of the prisoners.
India and Pakistan currently have hundreds of each other’s nationals in their jails, a majority of them fishermen arrested for straying across the maritime boundary.
Indian navy is trying to make a secure communication system for fishermen so that they can get updates on their present positions.
Work on identifying and releasing these prisoners through a joint judicial commission has been hit by the troubled bilateral relations in recent years
