Pakistan, India exchange lists of nuclear facilities, prisoners

Pakistan and India on Thursday exchanged the lists of their nuclear installations and facilities to protect the sites if war breaks out between the two neighbors.

The exchange was made in accordance with Article II of the Agreement on Prohibition of Attack Against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India, which was signed on Dec. 31, 1988 and entered into force on Jan. 27, 1991.

Under the pact, both India and Pakistan are to inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities every year.

On Thursday, Pakistan and India also exchanged the lists of prisoners under the Consular Access Agreement between the two nations. The two countries exchange the prisoners lists twice in a year.

India and Pakistan are both nuclear powers, but they are also arch rivals and have fought at least three major wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir in the last 60 years.

This year's lists were exchanged at a time when relations are tense over cross-border shelling.

Pakistan claimed Indian border forces killed two of its soldiers along the border on Wednesday ahead of a flag meeting and summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad to lodge a formal protest over the incident.

However, India claimed that Pakistani troops opened fire on 12 Indian posts late Wednesday night in Kashmir, in which one Indian soldier died, and four Pakistani soldiers were killed in the Indian border security force's retaliatory firing after Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked "a suitable and appropriate reply for any such unprovoked firing." Enditem