In 'Troubled Waters': Plight of Fishermen Caught in Indo-Pak Conflict

A story of how climate change and Indo-Pak border conflict exacerbate the woes of fisherfolk in Gujarat and Sindh.

The fishing communities in coastal villages of Gujarat and Pakistani province of Sindh remain the worst casualty of the seventy year long conflict between the two countries.

(Illustration: Namita Chauhan–The Quint)

Calm weather, balmy day, and a turbulent future ahead that Hira and her husband Deepak Chavda didn't quite foresee.

"I don't remember the exact date but it was sometime in April 2018," said 30-year-old Deepak, as the couple tried to recollect the day he was arrested by Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency, an arm of the Pakistan army responsible for patrolling the country’s coastline.

His crime? A member of the machhiyar (fishing) community of Gujarat, Deepak, along with six other boatmen, set out into the Arabian Sea to catch fish. Before they realised, their boat had crossed the territorial waters of India, and all six boatmen, including Deepak, were arrested and taken to a jail in Pakistan's Karachi where they spent five years.

On 16 May, Deepak returned to Kodinar -- a nondescript town in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district.

The memories of that April 2018 afternoon are still fresh in Deepak and Hira's mind. "It was particularly hot in Kodinar. I told him that their group should postpone the trip by a few days. The temperature was high, and I feared that it might rain... But he didn't listen to me. He said he would be back in 20 days with a large haul of fish," added Hira.

Deepak, 30, admitted that he should have listened to his wife and trusted her instincts but the sea was and still remains his favourite place.

"My father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and my ancestors before them were all fishermen. The sea is our bread and butter. So, naturally I was very excited to be on the boat," he said. Little did he know of what lay ahead.

"I still can't believe I am back home. I've asked Hira to pinch me at least 50 times. Is this a dream?" Deepak said.

Even as Deepak and others returned home, figures by the External Affairs Ministry of India and Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggest that 456 Indian fishermen are currently in custody in Pakistan. Similarly, 95 Pakistani fishermen are lodged in Indian jails.

This is the story of those who disappear, those who return, and those who don't.

The Homecoming

On Monday, 15 May, Deepak was among the 198 Indian fishermen who arrived at Gujarat's Vadodara railway station after being released from Karachi’s Malir jail where he spent half a decade.

A batch of 198 Indian fishermen were taken to the Wagah Border between and Pakistan before they were released in the Indian state of Punjab on 15 May.

From there, they reached the Vadodara railway station in Gujarat.

(Illustration: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

From Vadodara, these fishermen, including Deepak, reached Veraval town in Gir Somnath.

Since Deepak's disappearance, Veraval, a town 50 km from Kodinar, Deepak's hometown, had become a "pilgrimage" of sorts for his wife Hira Chavda.

"Initially when he disappeared, we had no idea where he was. It was through a news report in Yathakaal (a local newspaper) that we learnt that an Indian boat were captured by the Pakistanis. Some of us from the village then approached the Veraval-based National Fisherworkers' Forum, which keeps track of such disappearances. That's where I learnt that my husband was indeed on the boat that was captured. Whenever we wanted an update on him, we had to go to Veraval. I visited once every 15-20 days, without fail," Hira told The Quint.

These visits, however, came at a cost, especially for Hira who in Deepak's absence was the sole breadwinner of the family.

"I worked as a domestic help to sustain my family. Hiring a car was never an option so I always took a bus, often with my toddler wrapped around my arms."

Hira Chavda

In the wee hours on 16 May, Deepak boarded a bus home from Veraval.

The journey from Vadodara to Kodinar was over 16 hours long but to Deepak "these 16 hours felt longer than the five years spent in Pakistan," he said.

“The hope that one day I would return home to my wife, my mother, and my child who was just eight months old when I was arrested, kept me alive all those years. My wife hasn’t stopped crying since I returned and I hardly recognise my son, who is almost six years old now,” he told The Quint.

The Long Wait

When Ramila ben in Daman and Diu's Vanakbara village first heard that Pakistan was set to release a batch of 198 Indian fishermen lodged in their jails, she desperately hoped her husband Jitu Soma would be one of them.

Much like Deepak, 40-year-old Soma was arrested when his boat crossed the water borders between India and Pakistan while he was on a fishing trip in 2019.

"When I heard that some fishermen are returning home, I was really hoping my husband would be one of them but his name was not on the list. I was told that the Pakistan government will release more people in days to come. We met someone called Jaishankar in Delhi. He looked like an important person. He must have raised the issue with Pakistan," Ramila said.

She was talking about S Jaishankar, the Minister of External Affairs of India. In August 2022, Ramila was a part of a delegation, representing the fishing community of the union territory, which met Jaishankar to discuss the cause of fishermen languishing in jails in the neighbouring country.

"We have three children, one daughter and two sons. All three of them are studying. Jaya (daughter) is 15 (years old). In a few years, we will have to get her married. How will I handle this without my husband? I work as a daily wage labourer at construction sites. On some days, I find work, on others I don't. Till when will my family survive like this?" Ramila asked.

Her husband Jitu Soma is still in jail. It's been four years.

Ramila was part of a delegation representing the fishermen of Daman and Diu that met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to discuss the cause of fishermen languishing in jails in Pakistan.

(Illustration: Chetan Bhakuni/The Quint)

Speaking to The Quint, TCA Raghavan, a former diplomat and High Commissioner of India to Pakistan between 2013-2015, said that while there has been little attempt to find permanent, long-term solutions to the problem, the time-to-time release of these fishermen is seen as a humanitarian and "confidence building measure" by governments of both India and Pakistan.

"Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails and Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails also include categories other than the fishermen. And some of those categories are those of people who pose high-security risks. The release of these fishermen is usually seen as a confidence building and humanitarian measure, which means that to coincide with some other unrelated event, fishermen are released as a goodwill gesture."

TCA Raghavan

Ramila's son Abhishek, who turned 14 this year, has started accompanying other fishermen of the neighbourhood to fishing trips to learn the basics of the trade. "There is no other option. What will he do? Our family has depended on fishing for livelihood for at least four generations. We can't abandon it all of a sudden. But whenever he goes on a trip, I am scared. I keep praying for him to return safely," she said.

Life in Jail

It was a few days after he was arrested that Deepak was able to make sense of what he was up against.

"Initially I was a bit scared. I had heard stories of what happens to Indian prisoners in Pakistan. Surprisingly, they didn't torture us in the jail... Probably because I wasn't alone. There were many Indian fishermen in that jail and the prison authorities behaved as if they were quite accustomed to us being there," he told The Quint.

Each day he spent there, Deepak's worries about his family back home haunted him.

"Honestly, the difficult part wasn't me being in the jail. It was imagining what was happening to my family back home. Hira was forced to take responsibility of my old and ailing mother and our child, who was eight months old when I left. The thought of her hardships and the possibility that I might never return home considering the hostility between the countries, sent shivers down my spine," he said.

Even though the jail conditions were amenable, Deepak worried about his family back home.

"The difficult part wasn't me being in the jail. It was imagining what was happening to my family back home," he said.

(Illustration: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

Why do Fishermen Cross The Border?

A host of factors including lack of sophisticated navigational tools, absence of a physical boundary between the two countries, coastal development, and climate change are largely responsible for why scores of fishermen inadvertently end up crossing the border.

Usman Gani, the President of National Fish Workers' Forum (NFF) — an association of state level small and traditional fish workers in India — said that maritime trespassing increased significantly in the late '90s.

"This was the time when big trawlers made their way into the sea and port development was in full swing. It led to a decrease in fish production near the coast, and small and traditional fishermen — who would earlier fish near the coast — were forced to invest in bigger boats and venture into deep sea fishing," Gani told The Quint.

On 3 May, the forum wrote a letter urging Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto and India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, to take action on the release of arrested fishermen languishing in jails in both countries beyond the sentenced term.

"Close to 750 fishermen prisoners are languishing in the jails of India and Pakistan after they were arrested outside the territorial waters of their country of origin. As of today, 654 Indian fishermen are in Pakistan's Malir jail in Karachi, Pakistan. 631 arrested fish workers have already completed their sentence and their nationality is also verified. 83 Pakistani fishermen are in Indian jails. Likewise, many of them have completed their sentences and their nationality is verified," read the letter dated 3 May.

A letter written by the National Fisherworkers Forum, in which the organisation urged Pakistan's Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto and India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, to take action on the release of arrested fisherworkers languishing in jails in both countries beyond the sentenced term.

(Illustration: Chetan Bhakuni/The Quint)

Ahmedabad-based environmentalist Mahesh Pandya reiterated Gani's claims. "Over the years, the mangroves near the coast were destroyed in the name of coastal development. This, coupled with industrial pollution, has severely impacted the marine ecosystem near the coast, forcing the small and traditional fishermen to move away from the coast and invest in deep sea fishing," Pandya said.

A 2020 performance audit conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) revealed delays in reconstitution of the Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA). As a result, 32 violations of the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification/Environment (Protection) Act by the government were reported.

These include large-scale destruction of mangroves in Coastal Regulatory Zones (CRZs), no mechanisms for periodic survey of coastline through remote sensing applications, and discharge of untreated waste water into water bodies in CRZ areas.

In Pakistan, a Similar Story

Mohammad Juman, 65, has served three jail terms in India, first in 1993, then in 1996, and more recently in 2016. A fisherman from Thatta city in Pakistani province of Sindh, Juman said that not going back to the sea was never an option despite the risk of arrest.

"I have served three jail terms in India. In 1993, when I was first arrested, a jailor named Gulaab Singh was overseeing all prisoners in XX jail . He was a good man and treated everybody with kindness. In 2016, I was in Palara jail in Bhuj. Even there, everything was fine. But I was constantly worried about my family here in Pakistan."

Mohd Juman

In 2016, Juman was arrested with seven other men from his family, including his younger brothers, sons, and nephews.

"The situation was bad. In our absence, my wife and other women in the house were forced to beg on the streets to make ends meet," Juman said.

The Conflict

In April 2021, Ramesh Taba Sosa, a fisherman from Nanavanda village in Gujarat's Junagadh, died in a prison hospital in Karachi's Malir Jail. Sosa was arrested in May 2019 when his boat entered Pakistani waters.

As per a report by The Hindu, his sentence in the Pakistani prison ended on 3 July 2019 but he wasn't sent back home or given consular access till his death.

Sosa's wasn't an isolated case. The government of India has repeatedly raised the issue of Pakistan refusing consular access to Indian prisoners.

The state of Gujarat shares a 508 km-long border with Pakistan, primarily through the Rann of Kutch. 

Most fishermen arrested India are kept in Jails in Karachi and fishermen from Pakistan are lodged in Gujarat jails. 

(Illustration: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

For context, consular access is the right of foreign nationals to have access to embassies of their own countries in the nation which is hosting them.

In 2008, India and Pakistan signed an agreement on consular access. As per section four of the agreement, the governments of both nations would provide consular access within three months to citizens of another country, under arrest, detention, or imprisonment in their country.

State Apathy

As per Nazir Tunio, the Jail Superintendent at Malir Jail from where Deepak Chavda and 197 other fishermen were released on 15 May, two more batches of fishermen will be released in June and July.

Meanwhile, TCA Raghavan emphasised that at a diplomatic level, the issue has only been looked at as a humanitarian crisis and no preventive or permanent solutions have been discussed so far.

"There are two sets of issues here. First, the maritime boundary is not delineated because of complex political reasons. Second is that regardless of the maritime boundary, the fishermen are chasing swarms of fish which know no borders. And over the last few decades the quality catch has moved towards Pakistan side of the Arabian Sea. So, one could argue that even if the boundary was delineated, it would not act as a deterrent for these fishermen."

TCA Raghavan

He added that solutions to this issue will require a combination of research in areas of science and social science.

"If we were to look at the solutions for this issue beyond humanitarian ad-hoc fixes, then we will have to delve into sciences, social sciences, and international best practises. The problem is not unique to India and Pakistan. We should look at how other countries involved in border disputes have managed to solve the problem," he said.

A Glimmer of Hope

When the news of more fishermen returning from Pakistan reached Ramila ben in Vanakbara, she was filled with renewed hope. "I pray day and night for my husband to return in the months to come. I want him to be here for the wedding of our children. He isn't a terrorist. What is his crime? How does one figure borders when in water?" she asked.

Meanwhile, in Kodinar, Deepak plans to spend a few months with his wife, and six-year-old child and stay away from the sea till he is mentally prepared to return. "A machhiyar cannot survive away from the sea. I'll do odd jobs for a few months and when I'm ready, I will return to the waters. I have to catch up on six years of my child's life," he told The Quint.

Despite the risks involved, fishermen in Gujarat say that they do not have many options. 

"A Machiyar cannot survive away from the sea," they said when asked if they'd ever quit fishing.

(illustration: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

As for Mohammad Juman in Pakistan, he and his family are still searching for Samir Shah and Mustafa, two fishermen from Sindh whose whereabouts remain unknown since they last ventured into the sea.

"Please help us find Samir and Mustafa. We don't know which jail they're lodged in or if they're even alive," Juman pleaded.

(Special thanks to Karachi-based journalist Veengas Yasmin who helped coordinate interviews with Mohd Juman in Pakistan)