Finally, the dead body of Gujarat fisherman to arrive from Pakistan

Ahmedabad, 14 February 2014

Dead body of Gujarat fisherman Bhikhubhai Shiyal will arrive at Mumbai on 15 February from Pakistan. The Gujarat government has made arrangement to take the body to late Shiyal’s Garal village in Gir Somnath district of Gujarat.

Fisherman Bhikha Lakha Shiyal (35) from Garal village in Junagadh district, died on December 19, 2013 in a Pakistan’s Karachi jail due to undisclosed reasons. The body of Shiyal was in Pakistan even after more than one and half month.

Shiyal and several other fishermen, were arrested by the Pakistani marine security agency in the Arabian sea on October 25 last year for straying into Pakistani waters while fishing.

Gujarat Chief Minister had raised the issue of Shiyal’s body with central government. His communication to the Central Government to bring back to India early the body of fisherman Bhikhubhai Shial from Pakistan has paid its dividend.

Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani in his letter to the Prime Minister had requested for financial assistance to the two orphaned children of Shiyal on humanitarian ground. 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 had earlier sent all the relevant documents, confirming Shiyal’s identity, to the Union External Affairs Ministry.

According to the Gujarat Government spokesperson Finance Minister Nitin Patel, the Chief Minister came to know about the Centre’s lackadaisical attitude from the late fisherman’s daughter’s poignant letter written to him, and not through the Central Government. The Pakistani authorities are compassionate, but not the Government of India.