KARACHI: The government of Pakistan released 20 Indian fishermen as a gesture of goodwill from the Malir District Prison on Sunday.

“We were arrested at sea by the Pakistan Coast Guard for crossing over to Pakistan waters in November 2018. At the time we braced ourselves for the worst. But our 14 months in jail has helped clear all misconceptions about this country we used to view as our enemy earlier,” said Indian fisherman Gir Somnath on his release from prison.

“Whatever we used to hear about Pakistan in the news when we were in India seemed like a piece of fiction while doing time in jail here,” he added.

“We are taking back with us good memories of Malir jail. We never felt like we were in another country here. The jail staff was kind to us. They told us that they knew that we were here due to our ill fate. We were not real criminals so they were not treating us as such while extending all kinds of facilities to us,” he added. After the release of these fishermen, there are 199 Indian prisoners remaining in the jail of whom 189 are fishermen and 10 happen to be civilians.

The Indian fishermen, most of whom hail from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, were handed over to the Edhi Foundation by the jail police. They boarded the train to Lahore from the Cantonment Railway Station.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2020