India, Pak swap nuclear unit lists

Keeping with a two-decade-old practice, India and Pakistan have exchanged lists containing the names of their nuclear facilities as part of a pact that prevents them from targeting each other's nuclear installations.

Keeping with a two-decade-old practice, India and Pakistan have exchanged lists containing the names of their nuclear facilities as part of a pact that prevents them from targeting each other's nuclear installations.

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The exchanges have been taking place on the first day of every year since 1992 as part of their deal — the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities — signed in Dec 1988.

“India and Pakistan today exchanged — through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad — the list of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations between India and Pakistan,” said a statement from the external affairs ministry.

In line with the provisions of another bilateral pact, ‘consular access’ between the two countries signed in 2008, both sides also shared a list of prisoners lodged in jails belonging to the two countries. The agreement, which was signed in May 2008, states that a comprehensive list of citizens of each country lodged in the other’s jails must be exchanged twice every year — on Jan 1 and July.