Karachi: It was like waking up from a devastating nightmare for the two Pakistani fishermen, who returned home after spending 22 years in Indian prisons.
The two fishermen, Mohammad Hanif Marghar and Hussain Walarhi Bianna, are among the 16 fishermen released by India and handed over to Pakistani authorities at the Wagah border on Aug 8.
Fourteen of those fishermen belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and were captured in 2013 but Hanif and Hussain hail from Ibrahim Hyderi in Karachi, where they returned on Monday afternoon after travelling by road from Lahore.
Both men seemed to be more fluent in Hindi and Gujarati than Sindhi. “Well, those were the languages we used to converse in with the jail staff and other inmates,” said Hanif. “I was almost 16 years of age at the time of my arrest. I have spent a bigger portion of my life in the Indian jail.”
Catching fish was the farthest thing in his mind on returning to his homeland. Hanif said he was dying to meet his parents in Shah Bandar.
“I am also hoping to start a new life now. I want to get married, too. I’ll request my mother to find a nice girl for me,” he said as his friends who had come to receive him at the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) headquarters, laughed. They said that at his age, it would be difficult to find him a girl who’s still single.
‘I’ll request my mother to find a nice girl for me’
About how he got to be behind bars in India for so long, Hanif explained that he was arrested at sea but tried as an infiltrator from Pakistan during the Kargil war.
“That changed the entire nature of my case. The government lawyer assigned to my case was Amir Ali Lotia. He tried appealing so many times, even to the Indian Supreme Court, but to no avail. That country is biased when it comes to dealing with Muslims. Even my lawyer was told that he was unnecessarily taking my side because he happened to be a Muslim,” Hanif said.
“When I was arrested in 1993, I was a complete illiterate but now I have studied a little and know several other kinds of work as well such as weaving carpets, stitching and machine work. I don’t think I want to go back to fishing now. I can do other things, too,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hussain, who also happened to be captaining their boat on that fateful night when they got arrested, was touched to find his four little children all grown up on his return.
“I have three sons and one daughter. At the time our boat was captured in Indian waters, my youngest son was eight months old. Now I’m surrounded by grandchildren, who are older than he was at the time,” he said while hugging and holding close two of his daughters’ little girls.
“I’m your grandfather, children,” he said repeatedly to them trying more to make himself believe it than them, it seemed.
Hanif and Hussain were among five fishermen arrested 22 years ago and accused of smuggling and infiltrating India.
All were given imprisonment sentences of 14 years each but still kept behind bars after that as they still had to pay heavy fines. The other three returned earlier, a couple of years back but Hanif and Hussain were still stuck there until PFF chairman Mohammad Ali Shah offered to pay their fines while also engaging the Indian media and social activists there in their cause.
“I told the media there that when fish in the ocean move from this side to that side why treat the poor fishermen on either side so harshly,” Mohammad Ali Shah told Dawn. “These men were innocent. They were just framed to make them look like villains.”
As the two fishermen met and hugged family and old acquaintances, two women with sad eyes watched. One of them was Mariam Usman from Rehri Goth, who said that she had seven relatives locked somewhere in Indian prisons for 15 years now.
One of them, she shyly said, was her cousin and fiance. There was also Mai Bhagee from the same village in Rehri Goth as Mariam. She said her four brothers were also in Indian jail after being given life imprisonment and during these years one of them passed away.
“Now I’m waiting for the three who are alive. Seeing Hanif and Hussain return alive after 22 years gives me hope,” she wept.
