A Pakistan-based NGO has said that it will take up with the concerned authorities the issue of sending back the body of a Gujarati fisherman who died in a Karachi jail last month.
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.
"There should not be any further delay in sending the body to India," Shah said, adding that the Gujarat Fishermen Association had informed him about all the required information being sent to Pakistan government by the Indian counterpart earlier this month for confirming his identity.
Shah said they want Shiyal's body to be sent to India urgently in view of the plight of his two orphaned children.
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.
In his letter to the Prime Minister on January 14, Parimal Nathwani, an Independent MP in Rajya Sabha, had said that Shiyal's body was still in Pakistan and this has shocked his two children and family.
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.
