Gujarat fisherman who died in Pak jail in March cremated today

The mortal remains of a fisherman who died in a Pakistan jail in March this year was today consigned to flames at his native Kotada village in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district.

Fisherman Deva Rama Baraiya's body was flown from Karachi to Dubai yesterday from where it was brought to Ahmedabad today and then taken by road to Kotada, said Kiran Dave, Gujarat Fisheries department official.

The 4,500 residents of the village observed a bandh in protest against the Pakistani authorities for not informing Indian officials when Baraiya (55) died in a Karachi jail on March 4, Kotada village sarpanch Babubhai Somabhai told PTI today.

Baraiya's family only got to know of his death when his cellmate, Pravin Dhansukh Chavda, wrote a letter, dated April 22, to his wife, which the latter received on June 10.

Chavda, also a resident of Kotada, is the son-in-law of Baraiya's brother and is still lodged in a Pakistan jail.

Baraiya's wife, Kasturben, told PTI today that she had requested Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj to take up his death with Pakistani authorities to find out its exact cause.

Gujarat Chief Secretary J N Singh told PTI that the MEA had informed the state government about Baraiya's death on June 12 and paperwork, to get the fisherman's body back to the country, began on the same day.

Baraiya was arrested on February 2 this year by Pakistan maritime authorities after he allegedly entered the neighbouring country's territorial waters near Jakhau Port in Gujarat's Kutch district.

The body was kept in the morgue of Edhi Foundation, a Pakistan-based NGO and a post mortem was conducted on it at a hospital in Karachi on July 4 before it was flown to India, officials said.

Several people, including Rajya Sabha MP Parimal Nathwani, state-run Gujarat Fisheries Central Cooperatives Association chairman Veljibhai Masani offered condolences to Baraiya's family.