Fishermen released from Pak jail head to their homes in Guj

The Gujarat government has taken custody of the 100 fishermen released by Pakistan on Saturday as part of a goodwill gesture amidst strained ties between the two countries.

The fishermen, most of them from Gujarat and Union Territory of Daman and Diu, will reach Vadodara on the night of April 17 and taken to their native places, a senior Fisheries department officer said Tuesday.

"The batch of the 100 fishermen was released (from Malir Jail in Karachi) on Saturday. They were handed over to the BSF at the Wagah border on Monday," said N F Patel, Deputy Director, Fisheries Commissionerate, Gujarat.

Among the 100 fishermen, 84 hailed from Gir Somnath district, six from Navsari, one from Bhavnagar and four from UT of Daman and Diu, he said, adding that rest five fishermen belonged to West Bengal.

The released fishermen are part of the second batch of 360 Indian prisoners Pakistan has promised to set free in four phases this month.

Pakistan had released the first batch of 100 Indian fishermen on April 7.

They had been arrested for fishing illegally in Pakistani waters. Another 100 will be freed on April 22 and the rest on April 29.

Both the countries frequently arrest fishermen as there is no clear demarcation of the maritime border in the Arabian Sea and these fishermen do not have boats equipped with the technology to know their precise location.

Owing to the lengthy and slow bureaucratic and legal procedures, the fishermen usually remain in jail for several months and sometimes years.

Tensions between both the countries escalated since Pulwama attack in the Valley in February this year and India's retaliatory air strike on a terrorist training camp in Balakot.