Pakistan, India exchange nuclear, prisoners data

Pakistan and India Sunday exchanged lists of nuclear installations and facilities and prisoners in each other's custody, the Foreign Ministry said. "The Governments of Pakistan and India are required to exchange lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities in accordance with Article-II of the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear installations and facilities between Pakistan and India of 31 December 1988," a Foreign Ministry statement said. In accordance with the afore-said Agreement, a list of requisite facilities in Pakistan was given to the Indian High Commission Official at the Foreign Office on Sunday at 11.30 a.m., it said. The Indian side also handed over its list to the Pakistan High Commission Official at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, the Foreign Ministry said. The "Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities" came into force in January 1991. The first exchange took place on Jan 1, 1992 and the 2012 exchange will be the 21st consecutive list exchange between the two countries. Pakistan and India conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998. Both countries are de-facto nuclear-weapon powers. India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, followed by five more in 1998. Pakistan conducted its six nuclear tests in 1998. Neither India nor Pakistan is a signatory to the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India considers the NPT discriminatory while Pakistan has indicated that it won't join the international agreement till its neighbor does so. Both sides also exchanged lists of prisoners in each other's custody in accordance to the Agreement on Consular Access signed between Pakistan and India on 21 May 2008, the Foreign Ministry said. Both countries are required to on 1 January and 1 July every year. "Consistent with the provisions of this Agreement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over the list of Indian prisoners in Pakistan to the Indian High Commission Official at the Foreign office today," the statement said. The Indian side also handed over the list of Pakistani prisoners in India to the Pakistan High Commission Official at the Ministry of External Affairs, it said. The statement did not mention number of prisoners in both countries. In 2004 they launched a peace process, but that is now on hold following the Mumbai attacks, with New Delhi pressuring Islamabad to do more to punish those responsible for the carnage and to crack down on anti-India groups. On Tuesday, senior Pakistani and Indian officials concluded two- day talks on conventional and nuclear Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) in Islamabad. This was the first meeting of the Joint Working Group on nuclear and conventional CBMs in over four year, which were held in "cordial and constructive atmosphere". The two sides had agreed to recommend to their Foreign Secretaries to extend the validity of the Agreement on Reducing the Risk from Accidents Relating to Nuclear Weapons for another five years. The Foreign Secretaries of the two countries met in Islamabad in June 2011 where both sides agreed to re-convene the two expert groups. These expert groups last met in New Delhi in October 2007. India and Pakistan resumed their dialogue process early this year after a gap of over two years in the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks that was blamed on Pakistan-based militant groups.