LAHORE, May 17: India released 14 Pakistani fishermen and handed them over to the Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border on Saturday.

Officials of the Sindh fisheries department, interior ministry and Rangers received the fishermen who belong to Karachi and other parts of Sindh.

The fishermen are Mohammad Sadiq, Mohammad Razzaq, Mohammad Hanif, Mohammad Sadiq, son of Mohammad Ahmed; Mohammad Ismail, Mohammad Ahsan, Mohammad Umer, Mohammad Fiaz, Mohammad Ameen, Rasheedullah, Shaheer Ahmed, Shahadat Ali, Abdul Ghafoor and Mohammad Hussain.

Qari Saeed, son of a released fisherman Shahadat Ali, told Dawn by phone from Karachi that his father had left for fishing along with seven other people in October, 2007.

“When we were returning after two weeks of fishing, Indian marine authorities intercepted us in Pakistan territorial waters and took us away to their side,” Saeed quoted his father as having said in a telephonic conversation after the arrest. “My father informed me about his arrest on the second day of the incident,” Saeed said, adding that his father had been kept in the Jamnagar jail.