Neighboring Pakistan and India on Sunday exchanged lists of their nuclear facilities as part of a 1988 agreement that forbids each other from attacking each other’s nuclear facilities, according to official statements from both sides.
Relations between Pakistan and India have been tense over the Himalayan region of Kashmir since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
The two countries fought three wars, created two armies and developed nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974 and Pakistan in 1988. The lists were transmitted simultaneously through the diplomats of the two countries in Islamabad and New Delhi.
India and Pakistan also exchanged lists of prisoners held by each other as part of an agreement struck in 2008.
Pakistan has shared a list of 705 detained Indians (51 civilians and 654 fishermen). India also exchanged a list of 434 Pakistanis in detention (339 civilians and 95 fishermen).
India and Pakistan are detaining fishermen from the two countries for crossing an uncharted maritime border between them.
Their maritime security services confiscate boats and imprison fishermen, who are usually released only after negotiations between the two countries. They usually spend years behind bars without a formal trial.
The 2008 agreement gives each side access to prisoners and requires them to exchange lists of prisoners in the other side’s custody in January and July.
Separately, Pakistan requested consular access for its military personnel who went missing during the 1965 and 1971 wars and special consular access for 56 other civilian prisoners.