KARACHI (The Thursday Times) — Eleven Pakistani fishermen who spent between four and nine years in Indian jails after drifting into Indian waters were reunited with their families in Karachi on Friday, in tearful scenes at the Edhi Centre near Merewether Tower.
The men were handed over by Indian authorities at the Wagah border about two months ago. The Edhi Foundation brought them from Lahore to Karachi by ambulance, and they arrived at 11.30am to families who had been waiting since the morning, Dawn reported.
Kamal Hassan Bengali of Machhar Colony, who spent eight years in an Indian jail, met his eight-year-old niece for the first time. His mother died on the day the Indian coast guard seized his boat, and he learned of her death only through a letter that reached him three years later. Kamal said the boat drifted into Indian waters after its engine failed.
Noor Nabi Bengali, who was on the same boat, said the prisoners were given food that had often gone bad. Khamiso Siddiq Mallah of Shah Bandar, now 60, said he had spent almost four years in captivity and would not fish again. “I will become a labourer, but I will never go back to sea,” he said. Abdul Rehman of Korangi, jailed for nine years, said he could no longer remember the name of his boat.
Fishermen from both countries are regularly arrested for straying across the poorly marked maritime boundary in the Arabian Sea, often spending years in jail long after completing their sentences while their nationality is verified and release is arranged through diplomatic channels.
