A Rajya Sabha MP has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting to take up with the Pakistan government the issue of bringing back the body of a Gujarat fisherman, who died in the neighbouring country's jail last month.
According to the information with the state government, Bhikha Lakha Shiyal (35), a fisherman from Garal village in Junagadh district, died on December 19, 2013 in a Karachi jail.
The cause of his death was not yet known.
In his letter to the PM yesterday, Parimal Nathwani, an Independent MP in Rajya Sabha, said the body of Shiyal was still in Pakistan and is yet to be brought to the country even after 27 days of his death, which has shocked his two children and his family members.
Shiyal, alongwith several others, was arrested by the Pakistani marine security agency in the Arabian sea on October 25 last year for straying into Pakistani waters while fishing.
The deceased, whose wife had died about two years ago, is survived by a 15-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.
Nathwani, in his letter, also requested for financial assistance to the two orphaned children of Shiyal on humanitarian ground.
Earlier, S K Nanda, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), had said that the Gujarat government will take up with the Centre the issue of bringing back the body of Shiyal.
Gujarat Fisheries Commissioner P L Darbar had also earlier said that the state authorities had sent all the relevant documents, confirming Shiyal's identity, to the Union External Affairs Ministry.
