The Gujarat government will take up with the Centre the issue of bringing back the body of a fisherman from the state who died in a Pakistani jail last month, a senior official said on Sunday.
S. K. Nanda, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), told PTI over phone that the state government did not yet knows the cause of the death of Bhikha Lakha Shiyal (35), a fisherman from Garal village in Junagadh District.
According to the information with the state government, he died on December 19, 2013 in a Karachi jail.
P. L. Darbar, Gujarat State Fisheries Commissioner, told PTI that the state authorities had sent all the relevant documents, confirming Mr. Shial’s identity, to the Union External Affairs Ministry in Delhi.
Mr. Shial, along with 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.
Mr. Shial, whose wife had died about two years ago, is survived by a 15 years old daughter and 3 years old son.
