Body of fisherman who died in Pak jail to arrive on Feb 2

The body of an Indian fisherman, who died in a Pakistani jail earlier this month, will be brought to Mumbai on February 2, Gujarat fisheries minister Babubhai Bokhiria said on Friday.

The body of an Indian fisherman, who died in a Pakistani jail earlier this month, will be brought to Mumbai on February 2, Gujarat fisheries minister Babubhai Bokhiria said on Friday.

The deceased was among the group of Indian fishermen who were lodged in the Pakistani jail.

Jeeva Bhagwan Bamaniya, a native of Khan village in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district, died in a Karachi jail on January 4, a day before 218 Indian fishermen, mostly from the state, were released by Pakistan as a “goodwill gesture”.

The deceased was among the group of Indian fishermen who were lodged in the Pakistani jail. Jeeva was also supposed to be released along with them on January 5.

“We have received an e-mail from Indian High Commission office in Islamabad stating that the body will be flown to Mumbai on February 2 after conducting the postmortem,” Bokhiria told PTI.

A team of the state government’s fisheries department will go to Mumbai on February 2 to receive the body at the airport from where it will be brought to Khan village and handed over to the deceased’s family members, he said.

Rajya Sabha member Parimal Nathwani had also written to Swaraj to take up with her Pakistani counterpart the issue of expediting the process to bring Jeeva’s body back to his native place.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Fishermen Association’s senior vice president Veljibhai Masani requested the Gujarat government to provide financial aid to Vegiben, who has five children aged between 2 and 10 years and does not have any source of earning.