KARACHI: A group of fishermen belonging to Ibrahim Hyderi saved the life of a seemingly Chinese individual on Wednesday morning while out on a fishing expedition just outside the creek areas of the city.

The Pakistani fishermen on board their fishing trawler, Al-Madina, spotted a bright orange object floating at a little distance from them at 9:30am. On using their binoculars they realised that it was a person wearing a life jacket floating in the water.

The boat captain, Haji Abdullah, then turned the direction of his boat towards the person. The fishermen threw in their fishing nets to save him. They pulled him out with the help of their nets.

“It turned out to be an extremely tired and exhausted Chinese man. Well, he looked Chinese and what he was saying, though he couldn’t talk much, also sounded like Chinese. He had been swimming in the water for quite a while. Perhaps he fell off a deep fishing trawler owned by some Chinese company. It looks like he had been there in the water since Tuesday night trying to keep himself afloat,” Kamal Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) told Dawn.

“The man seemed too disoriented and unable to understand things. He was given a blanket to keep him warm and boxes of fruit juice to help him get his lost energy back but he didn’t drink much.

“He was also given a mobile phone in case he would like to call anyone to let them know that he was fine. But he just tossed it to one side. Then the boat captain also called the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency to hand him over to them. They came on their boat and took him into their custody,” the PFF spokesman informed.

Upon the return of the fishermen to Jamote Jetty in Ibrahim Hyderi, they were all greeted by PFF chairman Mehr Ali Shah, who congratulated them for saving a life.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022