KARACHI: The 18 fishermen of boats Al Razzak and Al Naseeb picked up by Indian authorities from Kajhar Creek on June 29, 2013, reached here from Lahore on Saturday after 10 months of confinement in India.

The 18 men — Ghulam Rasool, Sulaiman, Khair Mohammad, Mohammad, Rafiq, Mohammad Sumar, Riaz Jannat, Allah Bachayo, Ali Hasan, Mashooq, Mithu Jatt, Ghulam Nabi, Saddam Hussain, Abdul Majeed, Ali Nawaz, Wahid Dino, Haroon and Gul Bahar — were released to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border on April 16 and were staying at the Edhi centre in Lahore since then until the Edhi foundation arranged for their travel to Karachi by train.

The men were saddened by the fact that after having spent a miserable time in Indian prisons, no one cared to receive them in Lahore or arrange to send them to their homes in Thatta and Badin. “We had no money of our own and so we had to spend two days at the Edhi centre like orphans or abandoned people,” cried Ali Nawaz. “Even in the train, we had nothing to eat,” he said before telling a person trying to hand him an envelope and a box of biryani to go away.

Suddenly the relatives of the fishermen brought over from Thatta to the station by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) also complained on seeing officers of the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) who had also come to receive the fishermen at the station with boxes of biryani and envelopes with some cash for each released fisherman. “These people never helped the families of fishermen while they languished in Indian jails and now that they are here they have come hoping to get some publicity by giving them little food and a few thousand rupees,” said Bachal Thahi Mor of Rajan Thahi Mor village in Sujawal district.

Ali Mohammad, another relative, said that not a rupee reached the poor family members of the fisherman in their absence. “Only our fisherfolk community helped them to stay alive,” he said.

Haji Khan Mir, an FCS director, retorted, “Well, did they expect us to go to looking for them in Thatta and Badin to help them? They know where our offices are. They should have come to us.”

Rejecting the FCS gesture as ‘too little, too late’, the released fishermen and their families hurried to the parking lot where they spoke to the media before heading to Sujawal district by road.

“My wife died four years ago while giving birth to our only son, Javed. I was all he had but then I was in jail in India. Thank God for my brother who took care of my child while I was gone,” said Mohammad Sumar.

“I have six little children, a wife and an old mother. Thank God for my fishermen friends who helped them during this difficult time. The government did nothing for us,” said Ghulam Rasool.

“There were six of us in Al Naseeb who were picked up by Indian authorities at sea last year. At first they beat us but that stopped once we were sent to GIC prison, where we had to work all day breaking rocks. We were given six small roti s and two tablespoons of vegetable curry. It wasn’t enough and we went to sleep with an empty stomach each night,” said 22-year-old Saddam Hussain.

His brother, Mohammad Yousuf, said that they still had some 13 other relatives in Indian jails. Another relative, Abu Thahi Mor, said that he had five brothers there. “They don’t write to us. We have lost touch with them completely for 16 months now,” he cried.

Apart from the 18 fishermen, there was also a 19th prisoner, Pug Ji, from Tharparkar, who also reached Karachi on Saturday with the rest.