A fisherman from Gujarat who had been languishing in a jail in Pakistan’s Karachi, despite his sentence having ended in 2022, died in custody on January 16, journalist and activist Jatin Desai told Scroll.
In early 2022, the fisherman inadvertently crossed into Pakistani waters. About seven or eight others who were caught with him remain in jail in Karachi, Desai said.
Desai, a peace activist who has for several years been taking up the cause of Indian fisherfolk arrested in Pakistan, did not disclose the name of the fisherman who died.
However, he noted that a 2008 bilateral agreement between India and Pakistan on consular access states that arrested persons should be released and repatriated to each other’s countries within one month of their nationality being confirmed and their sentences being completed.
“As per this document, the fisherman should have been released long ago,” Desai told Scroll. “But for that to happen, the agreement has to be implemented in letter and spirit.”
The journalist-activist claimed that three to four Indian fishers die in Karachi’s Malir Jail every year. “In the first place, such persons should not be arrested at all,” he said. “If they are arrested, a situation should certainly not arise in which they die in prison.”
Desai said that India and Pakistan should...
