KARACHI: Behind each smiling face of the 163 Indian fishermen being released from District Prison Malir on Sunday morning was a story. All were looking forward to going home and being reunited with their families after spending eight months to one year behind bars for unknowingly straying into Pakistan waters while catching fish. But their circumstances were different.

There was Balu Bhai, son of Nathu Bhai, who wasn’t here for the first time. “My being here for the second time was the reason for my being looked at with suspicions of being an Indian spy or agent. I was questioned about it but no one here raised their hand on me during the interrogation,” the fisherman told Dawn.

Balu said he was first arrested at sea by the Pakistan Coastguards in 2010 when his boat, Nayana, with six fishermen on board, crossed into Pakistan. Then he had been in jail here for seven-and-a-half months. This second time, he crossed over on Oct 29, 2014 when his boat, Dev Raj, again with six men on board, found itself in waters this side of the border. “Now I’m going back home after nine months and three days,” he said with a broad smile.

‘I didn’t like going to school unlike my brother and sister as I wanted to be a fisherman’

“Of course, I understand why I came under suspicion. But I explained not me but the captain was the one in control of the boat. I just happened to be among the crew again, and it was lucky for me the authorities here understood that it wasn’t my fault. Still, my wife and two children back home in Gujarat weren’t so understanding when they found out.”

Another family in India that also wasn’t quite understanding or acceptable of the fact that their men got arrested at sea and were doing time in a Pakistani jail belong to 14-year-old Manghar Mohan and his uncle Bavyesh Ramji. “I didn’t like going to school unlike my brother and sister as I wanted to be a fisherman just like the other men in my family,” said the boy. “I was on my first fishing trip on board our boat, Vazai Saagar, where my uncle promised to teach me the ropes when we were engulfed in a storm before drifting into Pakistan,” he explained.

“I know that there is a separate facility for juvenile prisoners here but I requested the judge hearing our case to not separate us as I am the only elder Manghar had here. So my nephew came to Malir Jail with me,” Bavyesh, the uncle, said. “Of course, dealing with my older sister, Manghar’s mother, through the angry letters she sent me, was a different matter. But there is no line at sea to tell us that we have violated into another country. There are only the coastguards’ boats and by then it is too late to turn away.”

There were five children, including Manghar, among the 163 released on Sunday. The group going home included 11 Muslims. But if one of them, Siraj Rehman, was to be believed they got no special treatment from the prison authorities other than access to the prison mosque.

All the fishermen said that they were happy with the way they were treated in the jail as they got to eat healthy. However, they said they missed eating fish. “We have grown up in fishing villages, we catch fish and eat only fish so the chicken, eggs and vegetables offered to us here, although healthy and nutritious, don’t do what fish does to our palates,” said Bhaiya Raja.

“Sometimes our earnings collected from our beadwork that we have learnt here comes in handy to order fish from outside. But most of the time our relatives parcel dried fish to us from home. It is dry, dehydrated fish so it does not smell and we leave it in water or gravy for it to become just like fresh fish, which we often share with one another here.”

After the release of these Indian fishermen 197 more are left waiting to be deported. “Some are awaiting the completion of their sentences while some are still under trial,” said jail clerk Amir Baig.

“As soon as they hear that they are being released to be sent home, there is visible joy on their faces. They pack, unpack, check their meagre belongings several times before repacking. Their happiness cannot be easily explained,” said Masood Ahmed, assistant superintendent of the Malir jail.

Usually, the ones not going home are sad but this month they are hopeful, too, as there are expectations of more being released around Independence Day, August 14.

The Edhi Foundation arranged for the released fishermen to be taken to Lahore, where they will be handed over to Indian authorities at the Wagah border on Monday. They were escorted to the Cantonment Railway Station, where they boarded the Allama Iqbal Express for Lahore at 2pm on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2015

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