Date:21/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/21/stories/2008032155850100.htm

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Indian fisherman dies in Karachi jail

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: An Indian fisherman died in a jail in Karachi on Thursday.

Inspector-General (Jails), Sindh, Mohammed Yamin Khan, told The Hindu that Lakshman Kanji died in the Malir Jail hospital where he was admitted after he complained of stomach pain and diarrhoea 10 days ago.

Kanji, 38, from Gujarat was apprehended in February 2006 in Pakistani territorial waters along with several other fishermen, Mr. Khan said.

The Indian High Commission here was given consular access to him in July 2006. Like all other fishermen caught for trespassing, Kanji was charged under the Passport Act, Mr. Khan said.

The maximum jail sentence under this Act is six months, but it has become the practice to release fishermen in large groups in a ceremonial exchange of prisoners between the two countries, even if individuals among them have long completed their sentences.

The jail official dismissed suggestions of a tit-for-tat for the death of Khalid Mahmood in custody in India, and ruled out torture as a cause of death.

He said a magistrate had examined the prisoner’s body and found no external injuries. The body was sent for post-mortem examination. “There is no question of torture,” Mr. Khan said and added that Kanji was in the same section of the jail as 431 other Indian fishermen and it was “impossible” to mistreat one without the others coming to know of it.