Date:27/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/27/stories/2006052719481600.htm

National

Hitch in sending back Pakistani fishermen by rail

Sunny Sebastian

They will be sent by road from Jodhpur to Attari border for deportation.

Infrastructure on Pakistan side not ready yet

Fishermen lodged overnight in Jodhpur

JAIPUR: The efforts of Indian authorities to send back a group of Pakistani fishermen, caught near the Gujarat coast, by the Munabao-Khokhrapar Thar Express on Friday did not succeed. The 59 fishermen would be taken from Jodhpur in Rajasthan by special buses to the Attari border in Punjab for deportation.

It is said the Pakistani authorities were unwilling to receive the fishermen by the rail route. The infrastructure on the other side of the border is not yet ready yet.

"On our part, we were ready to carry them by the Thar Express. The last- minute hitch arose from the Pakistan side," S.B. Gandhi, senior Deputy General Manager, North Western Railway said here.

"It is all a matter of customs and immigration clearance for the Ministry of External Affairs and its Pakistan counterpart to decide."

The Border Security Force and the police had a trying time bringing the detainees safely to Jodhpur and keeping them overnight before the planned journey by the cross-border train, resumed recently after a gap of 40 years.