A Mumbai-based activist on Monday demanded Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to release and repatriate 245 Indian fishermen who had been held in Pakistani jails for a long time.

Jatin Desai, an activist and journalist, stated in a tweet that these convicts had already served their prison sentences and are still incarcerated. "While 14 people completed their sentences in 2018, 151 did so in 2019, and the remaining 80 will do so in 2020. They haven't been released yet, though "Desai wrote in the post, tagging External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.

It is "inhuman" to keep these fishermen in prison after they have served their entire terms, he said, and ideally, both countries should free and give over their convicts as soon as they have served their sentences.

According to the latest data, over 625 Indian fishermen are imprisoned in Pakistan, whereas approximately 80 Pakistani fishermen remain imprisoned in India.

Nanu Ram Kamalia, a fisherman, died in Pakistan's Landi Jail on February 4, but his death remains were only repatriated to India across the Wagah Border two months later, on April 4, to reach his hometown in Gujarat for funeral rites the next day.

Activists on both sides have been making regular appeals to the governments of both countries to consider the plight of the fishermen caught, imprisoned, and still deprived of their freedom after serving their sentences, causing great trauma to their families, and have sought a formal mechanism for permanent resolution of such issues.

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