20 years on: All hope for fisherman's wife, locked in India's prisons

Sakina Bibi awaits her husband, two brothers and two relatives who went missing while fishing.

“I don’t know what state they are in. I don’t know if they get anything to eat. I don’t know anything,” says Sakina Bibi, whose husband, two brothers and two relatives went missing while fishing in waters near neighboring India 20 years ago.

A mother of four, Sakina is clueless about the whereabouts of her husband and brothers even after two decades. Her story is not an isolated one. Many fishermen’s families are eagerly awaiting the return of their loved ones who mistakenly wandered into the unchartered waters of India.

While Pakistan and India make efforts to improve bilateral relations by easing visa regulations for tourists and businessmen, the issue of fishermen is still largely ignored.

Due to the lack of maritime boundary demarcation, many Pakistani fishermen who wander into unchartered waters in India are forced to languish in prisons for an indefinite duration and vice versa. Some even die while serving their time in prison.

According to an article appearing in The Frontier Post earlier this month, over 60 fishermen were serving time in Indian jails. The article also states that eight Pakistani fishermen were held in the Rajkot jail of Gujrat as they were implicated in narcotics and weapons cases. Sakina’s husband, two brothers and two relatives are named as the five of those men who will be freed after three years.

Once a fisherman crosses the border, the legal process is to verify his nationality by visiting his village to confirm his identity. Often the addresses provided by the fishermen are incomplete or are remote, which delays the process. Human rights activists also argue that often the verification process begins after the fishermen have served their terms, which usually varies from six months to a year.

The governments of both countries release a significant number of prisoners periodically but more effort is required to prevent others from suffering the same fate as Sakina who still harbors hope about her loved ones returning home soon.

WITH INPUT BY SARAH MUNIR AND KIRAN NAZISH