Emotional scenes were witnessed at the Karachi Cantt Station when families of two fishermen and a trader released from an Indian jail received them on their arrival at Karachi from Lahore on Sunday.
The fishermen served five years and the trader three years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly entering India without travel documents.
The fishermen, Allah Bux and Mubarak Allah Dino, both residents of Thatta, were caught by the Indian coast guard while they were fishing in the open sea. Trader Muhammad Younus of Karachi was arrested for entering India from Sri Lanka without legal documents.
All three were handed over to Pakistani officials by Indian authorities at the Wagah border in Lahore. They reached Karachi by train with the help of the Edhi Foundation.
They were welcomed by their family members and representatives of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum at the Karachi Cantt Station.
Speaking to the media, the fishermen said there were at least 70 Pakistani fishermen in the Indian jail where they were kept and some of them were seriously ill. Mubarak said his health condition deteriorated too due to the foul conditions in which the Pakistani prisoners were kept. He said he was also denied medical care.
Allah Bux and Mubarak appealed to the government to bring back Pakistani fishermen languishing in Indian prisons.
Meanwhile, trader Muhammad Younus, a resident of Kharadar, stated that he exports potato to Sri Lanka. Younus said: "My Sri Lankan friends had taken me for a boat ride in an area close to the Indian waters close to Tamil Nadu, where we mistakenly entered into the Indian territory and were rounded up for not having travel documents." The area, popularly known as Adam's Bridge, is only a 55km stretch of sea between Sri Lanka and India.
Younus said he was kept in a prison in Tamil Nadu, where he was subjected to inhuman conditions. A resident of Hyderabad was also languishing in the same prison and needed the help of the government of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2021.
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