Around 40 days after he died in a Pakistan jail, mortal remains of Indian fishermen Jagdish Mangal Bamaniya are likely to be repatriated to India on Friday, to be handed over to his family at Nanavada village in Gir Somnath district's Kodinar taluka. Sources in the Gujarat government said that Pakistan has intimated India that it will repatriate mortal remains of Bamaniya on September 15. “The Centre has intimated to the Gujarat government on Monday that Pakistan will repatriate the fisherman’s mortal remains via Wagah border near Amritsar on September 15. Accordingly, we are sending an officer to Amritsar for receiving the mortal remains, bring them to Gujarat and eventually hand them over to Bamaniya’s family,” a source said. The state government said that 40-year-old Bamaniya had been caught by Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) for allegedly crossing over to the Pakistan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line – the notional water border at the Arabian Sea off Kutch coast – on February 18, 2022. He was fishing on board Maha Kedarnath, a fishing trawler of Porbandar, when he and other crew members of the boat were appended by PMSA and taken to Karachi. He was lodged in Malir jail in Karachi, where he died on August 6, this year, due to “natural causes”. Jatin Desai, a Mumbai-based peace activist and former general secretary of the Indian chapter of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, however, lamented that Pakistan didn’t release Bamaniya and 98 other fishermen from the Karachi jail in July, this year, as announced. “It was announced that Pakistan will release 99 Indian fishermen, including Jagdish Mangal, from the Karachai jail on July 2 and repatriate them to India via Wagah border on July 3. However, this didn’t happen for reasons, which remain unexplained till date. While awaiting to be sent back to his family, the fisherman died in jail on August 6. Had he been repatriated to India on July 3, Jagdish Mangal would have been alive today,” Desai, who works for welfare of fishermen of India and Pakistan said. Desai rued that it will be almost 40 days after his death that Bamaniya’s family will receive his mortal remains. “It is shocking that even mortal remains take around 40 days to be repatriated despite the fact that he was on the list of fishermen to be released a month before his death and all formalities regarding his repatriation had been completed,” he said. Desai added that at present, 266 Indian fishermen are lodged in Malir jail while 68 Pakistani fishermen are lodged in various jails of Gujarat.
