Fisherman dies in Pakistan jail, family wants body back

Vadodara, Jul 20: A 30-year-old woman from a village in Gujarat has sought the help External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to bring back the body of her husband, who she claimed has died at a jail in Pakistan.

Jivuben Chauhan, a resident of Paldi village in Una tehsil of Gir Somnath district, wrote a letter in this connection to Swaraj on Tuesday. The woman said in her letter that her husband Kana Laxman Chauhan (37) and the latter's brother-in-law Kana Govind, both fishermen, were arrested near the port of Jakhau in Kutch district some months back by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency for allegedly violating the country's water territorial boundary in the Arabian Sea.

The woman, who has three daughters and two sons, told that she recently received a letter from Govind in which he wrote that her husband suddenly died in the Pakistani prison on July 5. She said her husband and Govind were lodged in the same jail in Pakistan.

The woman said Govind sent his letter through another fisherman from Gir Somnath district who was also earlier arrested by Pakistani authorities but released on July 9. The released fisherman visited her house on July 12 and handed her Govind's letter informing about her husband's demise, the woman said.

After getting the information, Chauhan wrote to Swaraj, saying she has till date not received any communication from the External Affairs Ministry or the Indian High Commission's office in Islamabad about her husband's death.

"Due to this reason, I seek your help for doing the needful in the matter," Chauhan said in her letter to Swaraj. "I along with my five children and my mother-in-law have been living in a rented premises in the village. I have been working as a labourer at a site to earn our livelihood since the arrest of my husband several months ago," she said.

In the letter, the woman also requested Swaraj for a probe into the sudden death of her husband in the jail, as she claimed that he had never written to her about suffering from any disease while being lodged there.

Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani, who belongs to Dwarka in Gir Somnath district, said has written to the external affairs minister to take up with her Pakistani counterpart the issue of expediting the process of bringing home the body of the fisherman so as to enable the deceased's family to perform his last rites. Gujarat Fishermen Association's senior vice president Veljibhai Masani said he has also written a letter to Swaraj to help in bringing back the fisherman's body.

PTI