Ahmedabad: The Chairman of Gujarat Fisheries Central Cooperative Association Limited (GFCCA) V R Masani today said that he and other prominent fishermen’s leader from the state have planned to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to request him to intervene in the matter of the alleged ill and inhuman treatment with over 450 Gujarati fishermern lodged in various jails in and around Karachi in Pakistan.

A total of 467 fishermen from Gujarat caught by the Pakistan Marines Security Agency from near the International Maritime border off Gujarat coast are languishing in four jails situated in and around Karachi.

Mr Masani said that it has come to the knowledge of the GFCCA that many of the jailed fishermen had in the letters written to their family members in Gujarat have complained of ill-treatment.

‘In the letters they have written that they don’t get proper and enough food. They are made to work very hard and treated inhumanely,’ he said.

The GFCCA chairman, who had visited Pakistan 11 times in connection with the fishermen’s issues, said that he was trying to send five women family members of as many prisoners to Pakistan to console them. “If they get visa they will go there,’ he said.

Apart from this the BJP MP’s from Junagadh (Rajeshbhai Chudasama) and Daman and Diu (Lalubhai Patel) have assured us to arrange our meeting with the Prime Minister. ‘We will apprise him of the matter and request his intervention,’ Mr Masani said.

Gujarat Fisheries Central Co-operative Association Limited (GFCCA) is an apex cooperative body of the fishermen cooperatives in the State of Gujarat. It was established in the year 1956 with financial and administrative support of the Government of Gujarat.

DeshGujarat