Nagpur: Amir Hamza, a Pakistani fisherman who was arrested in Indian waters by the Coast Guard about four years ago, was lodged in a jail in Bhuj, Gujarat. As his family hoped that one day he might return through goodwill repatriation from both sides, Hamza died in prison in June.
The date of registration of his death is mentioned as September 9 in the death certificate issued by the Gujarat government. But Hamza died on June 13, the same certificate says. His body was brought back four months later on 15 September. His body was taken to his home in Karachi, 1,200 km from the Wagah border.
TOI has access to documents relating to Hamza from both sides. The death certificate issued by the Gujarat government’s health department mentions that Hamza died on June 13 at the Civil Hospital in Bhuj. An emergency passport was issued in Hamza’s name by the Pakistani government to facilitate the crossover of his body from Wagah. The Interior Ministry in Pakistan wrote to the Jail Department of Lahore to hand over the body to an ambulance operator to be taken to Karachi.
TOI contacted her daughter-in-law Razia Jaffer in Karachi as her son Zafar Alam was out. “We came to know about his death only a month back. Someone, probably from the government, came to our house and asked if we were related to Amir Hamza and said that he is no more,” said Razia.
“He was arrested four years ago. There are other people like him who are in jail. Eventually, when we found his body, it was tied in such a way that we could not even see his face,” she said.
Saeed Baloch, general secretary of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, said that he came to know through a clipping that a fisherman had died in an Indian prison. “After that the correspondence started to bring back the mortal remains. The process can be expedited from both the sides,” he said.
He said there are 90 Pakistani fishermen in Indian jails and 500 Indians in Pakistan.
“The whole process here takes too much time to trace the identity of the person. Hamza was a Bengali expatriate and therefore did not even have a Pakistani identity card. Earlier, there was a judicial commission which looked into such matters, but no appointment has taken place since 20188,” Baloch said.
Explaining the procedure, Bhuj SP Saurabh Singh said that there is a prescribed procedure for such cases. The matter is to be taken up with the State Home Ministry, which takes it up to the Union Home Ministry. The latter takes up the issue with Abroad, which follows its own process of identifying and repatriating the individual.
Singh said Hamza was the last person to be sent. In some cases, the funeral took place in India itself.
Baloch said that Hamza was from a poor family and could not afford the cost of burial. His three sons could not attend the funeral as they were at sea fishing.
FacebookTwitterLinkedinE-mail
.