Forty-two days after his death in a Pakistani prison, the last rites of fisherman Jagdish Mangal Bhamanya were performed in his native village of Nanavada village in Gir Somnath district, where his mortal remains were handed over to the grieving family on Sunday.
Pakistan handed over Bamanya’s remains to Indian authorities at the Wagah border near Amritsar in Punjab on Friday.
A team of Fisheries Department officers brought the coffin from Amritsar to Ahmedabad by air late on Saturday night, and from Ahmedabad, it was taken to Nanavada village in Kodinar taluka in Gir Somnath district.
The ambulance carrying the coffin arrived at the village around 10:30 a.m., officers said, adding that the fisherman died of a heart attack.
“My elder brother Jagdish died in Pakistan and we received his body well more than a month later. He died due to illness as there are no proper medical facilities available there (in Pakistan),” Kyle’s younger brother Jagdish told reporters on Sunday. “Since the day he was arrested, I have not We hear any message or anything else from him.”
Bhamanya is survived by his wife Savita, his daughter, his mother Lakshami and his brother Kapil. He was arrested by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency on February 18, 2022, for allegedly crossing into the Pakistani side of the virtual International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off the coast of Kutch while fishing on board the Porbandar fishing vessel.
He was on a list of 100 Indian fishermen whom Pakistan announced would be released from Malir prison in Karachi on July 3 and returned to India. However, for reasons that remain unexplained, Pakistan did not release the batch of 100 fishermen, says Jatin Desai, a Mumbai-based activist who works for the welfare of fishermen in India and Pakistan and to promote friendly relations between the two neighboring countries. .
Kapil said that through Balu Sucha, president of the Samudra Shramik Sangh (SSS), a Kodinar-based NGO working for the welfare of fishermen in Gujarat, he learned on August 18 that Jagdish died in Malir jail on August 6.
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There are 266 Indian fishermen in Pakistani custody and 68 Pakistani fishermen in Indian custody. Most of the Indian fishermen arrested by Pakistan are from Gujarat.
Kapil, himself a fisherman, urged the Indian government to try to secure the release of Indian fishermen detained in Malir prison. “While we have now lost our brother to the disease, there are around 250 of our men in Pakistan jail. I humbly request the government to secure their release,” Kapil said.
He added: “Two of the 266 fishermen who are still detained in Pakistani prison are residents of Nanavada village.”