Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) chairman Mohammed Ali Shah told PTI over phone today that he will approach the concerned authorities in the Pakistan government to send the body of Bhikha Lakha Shiyal (35) to India at the earliest.
"We will try to find out as to why there is a delay in sending the body of the fisherman to Gujarat," Shah said.
Shiyal, a fisherman from Garal village in Junagadh district, died on December 19, 2013, at the Karachi jail. The cause of his death is yet to be ascertained. His body has been kept in a morgue.
Shah said they want Shiyal's body to be sent to India urgently in view of the plight of his two orphaned children.
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Earlier, S K Nanda, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), had said that the Gujarat government will take up with the Centre the issue of bringing back the body of Shiyal.
A Rajya Sabha MP had also written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up the issue with the Pakistan government.
Shiyal, along with several others, was arrested by the Pakistani marine security agency in the Arabian sea on October 25 last year for straying into Pakistani waters while fishing.
The deceased, whose wife had died about two years ago, is survived by a 15-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.
Gujarat Fisheries Commissioner P L Darbar also said that the state authorities have sent all the relevant documents, confirming Shiyal's identity, to the Union External Affairs Ministry in Delhi.