THE ordeal of the 42 Pakistani fishermen released from Indian jails this week exposes yet again the inhuman cost of political hostility in South Asia. The men returned home not as criminals but as survivors of cruelty no human being should endure. Their stories of beatings, burn injuries, forced labour and humiliation reveal the depths to which empathy has sunk in the shadow of conflict. One man was left half-paralysed by torture; others showed charcoal scars on their legs where hot irons........

© Dawn