Prisoners Project

The South Asia group is launching a new project on prisoners in India and Pakistan. In particular we will be focusing on people who have been imprisoned after going across the border into the other country. 

This particularly affects farmers and fishermen who in the pursuit of their livelihood unwittingly stray across land or maritime borders into the territory of the other country. Once caught by the authorities they are often suspected of being spies. They are then often imprisoned and left to languish in jails indefinitely. 

The prisoners are then to a large extent hostages to fortune. They are sometimes released as gestures of good-will when relations between the two countries are good. However, Indo-Pakistani relations are notoriously unstable and can very quickly be plunged into disaster. The atrocity in Mumbai in 2008 raised fears of an armed conflict between the two countries. The plight of the prisoners was pushed into the background and the reciprocal exchange of prisoners was halted. 

We can help by focusing attention on this issue and giving it greater prominence on the political agenda. We can do this in particular by drawing attention to the breaches of international law involved. 

Firstly, many of the prisoners are not given access to consular services. Indeed, the authorities of their country of origin are often not informed of their arrest until after they have served their prison sentence, according to Sanjay Mathur, first secretary at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad¹. 

Secondly, many prisoners are imprisoned without a trial. Where they are tried, they frequently do not have access to legal representation. Moreover, once in prison, they are often forgotten about and left in prison even after they have served their term of imprisonment. For example, Mehboob Ilahi crossed the border into Pakistan from India looking for work and after being arrested was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment². However, even after serving this term, he was held for an additional five years before being freed. 

Thirdly, the conditions in jail are often very bad. To some extent this is a general problem for prisoners in Indian and Pakistani prisons and not just for foreign prisoners. However, foreign prisoners are treated particularly badly, partly because they are suspected of espionage and partly perhaps because they are seen as especially defenceless. Ilahi claimed that while imprisoned in Pakistan, Pakistanis had taunted him that while Hindus burn their bodies after death (a reference to the Hindu tradition of cremation) they would burn him while he was alive. He suffered burns over a quarter of his body and was at one point told by doctors that it was unlikely that he would survive. 

More generally, we can point to areas in which there is scope for more co-operation between India and Pakistan. One is the visa system. For example, Pakistanis travelling to India are subject to strict limitations on the length of their visa, the places they may visit and the mode of transport to be used. Many people in both India and Pakistan have family living on the other side of the border. Those that fail to comply with the stringent visa restrictions are often arrested and detained in the other country placing an unnecessary burden on prison systems that already suffer from overcrowding. 

In addition, both India and Pakistan could clearly do more to clarify the location of their borders. Many of the Indian fishermen who have been imprisoned have commented that they had no idea where Pakistan’s maritime border lay. If the Indian and Pakistani authorities are as suspicious of people crossing their borders as they claim, they could pre-empt the problem by making it clearer where their borders are. 

Even once they are freed, prisoners’ problems often continue. Sometimes their families have moved and they are not able to locate them, leaving them to fend for themselves. Where they have been subject to torture prisoners are often unable to recover psychologically, such that their experience in prison never leaves them. The scars caused by imprisonment are deep and long-lasting. 

We are still at the initial stage of the project so any help would be appreciated, whether suggestions of action that we could take, providing contacts with relevant expertise or simply turning up to our events. Please watch this space for further information and please contact us if you have any questions.