‘No news of them in years’: Families of Indian fishermen jailed in Pakistan

Manjuben Baria’s husband died the very year their 22-year-old son, Mayur, was captured in 2021, while allegedly infiltrating Pakistani waters during a fishing trip.

“It was around Janmashtami when he left home to fish. Every Rakshabandhan, his sisters wait for him to tie rakhi, but we have heard nothing [of him],” says Baria, who is around 45 years old and supports her family as a farm labourer, earning up to Rs 300 a day.

“We met Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi; last year we met officials of the External Affairs Ministry. Our only demand is that they [her son and others] be brought back to their watan (homeland),” says Baria, who is from Kotda Bandar village of Kodinar taluka in the coastal Gir Somnath district.

Apart from Solanki and Baria, Jagrutiben Bhavyeshbhai Solanki and Jiviben Ramjibhai Solanki from Wanakbara in the Union Territory of Diu and Dhaniben Kanjibhai Bamaniya from Kotda Bandar also met Sanghavi in Gandhinagar on Friday, seeking the release and return of their menfolk.

In a press conference organised by Pakistan India Peoples’ Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFPD), a group working for peace between India and Pakistan, and National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) in Ahmedabad Saturday, the women members of the captured fishermen urged both countries to use the occasion of their respective Independence Days on August 14 and 15 to free the fishermen.

Mumbai-based senior journalist and activist Jatin Desai said, “Of the 198 Indian fishermen in Karachi’s Malir jail, 178 have completed their sentences, and their nationalities have also been confirmed. We demand that they be repatriated immediately.”

“At least before Covid, they (the family members) would receive letters from their kin in jail, but even that has stopped since,” Desai told mediapersons.

144 captured hail from Gujarat

Among the Indians languishing in Malir prison (in Karachi), 144 are from Gujarat, 24 from Diu and 18 from Maharashtra. Most of them have been given consular access.

According to Desai, 10 of them completed their sentences on July 16, 2021, but are still in jail. As many as 115 completed their sentences on March 16, 2022, 21 on November 17, 2022, 10 on January 31, 2023, and 22 on July 18, 2024, but have not been freed.

Meanwhile, 53 Pakistani fishermen are lodged in Indian jails, as per the latest list of prisoners shared between the countries on July 1.

A July 1 statement by the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Pakistan has been urged to expedite the release and repatriation of 188 Indian fishermen and civil prisoners who have completed their sentences. In addition, Pakistan has been asked to provide immediate consular access to 13 civil prisoners in Pakistan’s custody who are believed to be Indian.”