KARACHI: Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS) chairman Abdul Bar on Thursday said the federal government had failed to get Pakistani fishermen released from Indian prisons despite the fact that it had freed 360 Indian fishermen who were detained for violating Pakistan’s territorial waters.

“The federal government sends off 360 Indian fishermen to their country as a goodwill gesture, yet it has failed to get a single Pakistani fisherman from the Indian jails,” said Mr Bar while speaking at a press conference at his office. He said it was nothing but “our government’s bad diplomacy and utter failure”.

“The Indian government’s hands are stained with the blood of our fishermen. The jail authorities there are doing everything inhuman directed towards our innocent people incarcerated in cells. They are killing them,” claimed the FCS chief.

“They are sending us gifts in the shape of the bodies of our innocent people.”

FCS warns of agitation if its demands are not met

He said Pakistani fishermen were not fed well and there was no medical facility in the Indian jails.

He said Mohammad Sohail, a young fisherman, had been detained by the Indian authorities three months after his marriage, who was subjected to brutal torture until he died.

“He has left a baby who was born weeks after he was arrested by the Indians.”

He said Noorul Amin, a resident of Korangi, was another fisherman who succumbed to the worst torture before Sohail’s murder.

He said that instead of getting 108 Pakistani fishermen languishing in Indian jails released in return of 360 Indian fishermen, the Pakistani government had not yet taken up the issue of the killing of its citizens by Indian jailers.

He said the government should take concrete measures to get 108 Pakistani fishermen released or, “it should be ready for the agitation by the community that will not end until their demands are met”.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019