800 Jamnagar fishermen go missing in one year

Over 800 missing fishermen from Jamnagar for the last one year are suspected to be trapped in various Pakistani jails despite a year-long peace effort and agreement by the south Asian countries to release those behind the bars.

The Pakistani government had released 266 fishermen recently at the Wagah border.

The department of fisheries is planning to introduce a licence to each of the fishing boats, at a fee ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 12,000 per annum, depending upon the size of the boat and tonnage.

The department aims to build infrastructure facilities like jetty and equip boats with better navigational facilities with the revenues earned from the licence fee as the boats lack navigational tools to alert fisherman about boarders.

"Last week a boat carrying over a dozen fishermen from Jamnagar did not returned and is expected to be detained by Pakistani coast guards. As per our estimates, we believe over 800 fishermen are still detained in various Pakistani jails. All the fishermen were repatriated without their boats. Over 160 expensive boats are still in Pakistan's possession. Pakistan has arrested over 1,000 Indian fishermen for straying into Pakistani waters since the last one year," said C N Khatri, assistant director of fisheries, Jamnagar, on Tuesday.

Early this month, a group of 266 Indian fishermen, who spent over a year in a Pakistani jail after straying into its territorial waters, arrived back in India. These men are from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat and had been in Pakistani prisons for at least 15 months.

The department plans to provide life-saving jackets to fishermen at a 50 per cent subsidy and wireless phones in each boats, to warn fisherman about rough weather conditions. The department has already subsidised the diesel cost by providing fuel free of sales tax, which cost the department over Rs 10 crore in Jamnagar only.

"We along with the senior administrative officers of the state government and representatives of Porbandar Machimar Boat Association received them at Wagah. Pakistani authorities had kept them in in-human conditions due to which many of them have developed skin diseases and other ailments and no medical treatment was available to them. The fishermen also compliant about the poor quality of food served to them, which they often declined and remained hungry. Two fishermen are reported to be died in the Pakistan jails," said Khatri.

"Both the countries need to equip vessels with satellite technology that could give fishermen a fix on their whereabouts. They usually have a compass to ascertain direction, but the rest depends on the expertise of captain of the boat," Khatri added.