Pakistan to release 115 Indian fishermen

KARACHI, Jan 8 (Reuters) Pakistan will release 115 Indian fishermen days before Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee visits Islamabad to push the peace process between the two countries forward, an official said today.

''The fishermen will be released on Tuesday from the Landhi jail (in Karachi) and sent to the Wagah border for handing over to Indian authorities,'' Salahuddin Hyder, a spokesman for the government of southern Sindh province, told Reuters.

The fishermen were arrested in the last two years for illegally entering Pakistani territorial waters. Wagah is one of the transit points between the two countries.

Pakistan released 70 Indian prisoners, including 50 fishermen, last month while India sent back 54 Pakistani prisoners.

Maritime security officials from India and Pakistan frequently arrest fishermen who stray into each other's territorial waters as there is no clear demarcation line near the disputed Sir Creek estuary between the two countries.

Pakistan and India last month agreed to conduct a joint survey of the disputed 100-km estuary in Arabian sea, the latest step in a tentative peace process between the two nations.

Fishermen complain they often do not know whose waters they are in because of the disputed border.

REUTERS AB BD1920