KARACHI: Even before the two buses carrying the 88 Pakistani fishermen recently released from Indian jails had reached the Edhi Foundation centre at Tower late on Monday night, their relatives and members of the various non-governmental organisations, including the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, gathered at the place to receive them were talking about the one who wasn’t coming home, eight-year-old Ghulam Hussain.

Not at all pleased for having been released, little Ghulam Hussain’s father, Mohammad Juman, of Haji Yousuf Kahtiar Goth in Thatta, stepped out of the bus with a heavy heart amid cheers of welcome for all as he collapsed sobbing in the arms of a familiar face amid the crowd. “I left my little boy back there. God alone knows how I came back. God alone knows how I am feeling right now,” he told Dawn after gaining some composure.

Asked what happened, Juman said that it was explained to him by the Indian authorities with his release orders that the boy just couldn’t go because his papers were not in order. The Pakistani embassy still had to verify his identify as a Pakistani national for them to deport him here. “I begged them to please not send me home without my little boy but it was of no use,” the father, arrested by the Indian coastguards at Sir Creek with his son and other crew on their fishing boat Allah Madad, some 18 months ago, cried. “It’s all my fault. I had been telling him stories about my fishing expeditions ever since he was very little that he wanted to go in the first place. And look what happened on his very first time on a boat,” the father was inconsolable as his friends helped him into a pickup ready to leave for Thatta.

88 fishermen released from Indian jails return home

Meanwhile, holding his two little boys, Samir and Arif, close to his chest, Abdul Aziz of Ibrahim Haideri couldn’t stop himself from kissing their foreheads and cheeks. “My children, I will never leave you again for as long as I’m alive, I promise,” he told them.

“I will do anything, anything at all, but fishing,” he told Dawn. “It’s just not worth it,” the fisherman locked up in Jamnagar Jail for the last three years added.

“You have no idea what we go through in Indian jails. They beat us at the slightest of excuses and make us sweep floors and dig up latrines. For food we are given leftover curry of Indian prisoners with water added to it. And the roti is usually burnt, which they didn’t take. I only spent these last three years in their jail thinking about my wife and children back home. When I was being released the little money I had collected from all the hard labour I did in jail was taken from me by their jailers, who said what good Indian currency would be in Pakistan. I didn’t care as long as I was going home,” said Abdul Aziz.

“It feels good to be back after 15 years,” said a very aged fisherman, Haji Abdul Rahim Kathiar, of Keti Bandar as the ones there to receive him and showering him with rose petals started laughing. They explained: “Baba is so old that he has got confused. He has spent five years in Indian jail, not 15!” Asked if Baba would be fishing or retiring was enough to get Baba all charged up. “Retiring? You go retire! I will go fishing for as long as I live!”

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2015

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