'3 Indian fishermen died in Pak jail due to lack of treatment'

Three Indian fishermen had died in Pakistani jails due to non-availability of timely medical treatment, claimed one of the 172 fishermen released by the neighbouring country last Sunday in a goodwill gesture.

Arvind C, a resident of Kotda village of Kodinar taluka in Gujarat's Saurashtra region, told PTI over phone that "the lives of these three fishermen could have been saved if the Pakistani jail authorities had acted on their health-related problems in time."

While he identified two of the deceased as Babu and Devo, he could not recall the name of the third person.

Arvind claimed that even today there are many fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails in poor health conditions.

Arvind is one of the 172 fishermen who were released from two jails in Karachi, along with another prisoner, and handed over to the Indian authorities at the Waghah border on Monday.

"We had learnt about our release 10 days ago but fax on the release containing our names reached the Pakistani jail authorities very late," he claimed.

He alleged that Indian prisoners, mostly fishermen arrested for violating Pakistan's territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, were ill-treated in jails and the allowances earned by them were pocketed by the prison officials.

"Even gifts sent by our family members were not delivered to us," he alleged.

He alleged that they were not served proper food and were made to wash cloths of Pakistani prisoners and clean toilets.

He also said the India government had failed to take up their cause with the Pakistani authorities.