India asks Pakistan to repatriate Ansari as his prison term nears end

India is looking to turn up the heat on Islamabad for the release of Mumbai youth Hamid Nehal Ansari who crossed over to Pakistan looking to meet a woman he had apparently fallen in love with. The government issued a note verbale to Pakistan on December 11 seeking immediate repatriation of Ansari, official sources here said.
The government also sought release of 11 other Indian civilian prisoners who have served their sentence in Pakistani jails and whose nationality has been confirmed.The note verbale for Ansari is significant as it comes days ahead of the end of his prison term on December 16. Pakistan has so far remained non-committal on the issue of his repatriation.
In the absence of any substantive engagement, India and Pakistan have mostly focused on promoting religious tourism and addressing issues related to prisoners and fishermen. While Pakistan has released Indian fishermen at regular intervals, India is upset that Islamabad never allowed any consular access to Ansari.
As the government pointed out before Pakistan authorities, India had sought consular access to Ansari on at least 95 occasions before the December 11 note verbale. Ansari has been in Pakistan’s custody for around 6 years now, including his pre-trial period. India has so far not received any official communication from Pakistan on the nature of the charges against Ansari. India has described the denial of consular access to Ansari as violative of all international diplomatic and humanitarian norms.
Pakistan media reported in August this year that the Peshawar High Court had asked Islamabad to deport Ansari to India immediately after the completion of his 3-year sentence. The Indian government has also not taken kindly to the fact that despite Ansari being a civilian, his trial was carried out by a military court. While Ansari was arrested in 2012, his name, according to Indian authorities, was included in the list of Indian prisoners by Pakistan only in January, 2016.
The government has also urged Pakistan to expedite visas for a team of Indian medical experts constituted to visit Pakistan to examine mentally unsound, women, children and elderly prisoners awaiting repatriation to India. India has offered a similar arrangement to Pakistan for examination of Pakistani prisoners here.
India and Pakistan had arrived at an agreement over the humanitarian issue of prisoners last year in October after a meeting between foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan high commissioner Sohail Mahmood. Swaraj had suggested that both countries cooperate in matters related to mentally unsound prisoners and also juvenile, elderly and women prisoners. She had also suggested revival of the Joint Judicial Committee mechanism for visiting jails. Pakistan had accepted these proposals in March, 2018. While India has reconstituted its Joint Judicial Committee, it has not been able to visit Pakistani jails because of, according to Indian officials, lack of approval from Islamabad.
According to Indian estimates, there are 49 Indian civilian prisoners and 482 fishermen lodged in Pakistan jails. The nationality of 370 of these fishermen has been confirmed. According to Indian authorities, Pakistan has not provided consular access to any Indian prisoner since July 1, 2018. In March and June though, Pakistan did provide India access to a few Indian prisoners.