Oh FISH!

 

Hiren always loved the Handvo made at home by his wife Meenakshi. It took little time to make but he sure loved it. Hiren was getting late but he still waited for the Handvo to be ready. Once Meenakshi served it, he had stomach full servings, said good byes to his wife and two children and left for work.

Hiren was working as a captain with S.K. Fisheries in Diu. He used to set sail twice every month into the high sea to get some of the choicest of fish which were in high demand in the Gujarat market. Some of the catch would include high value fish like Pomphret, Threadfins, large king prawns. Over the past some years the high value catch had become tough to get due to increasing number of fishing fleets and climatic changes due to industries coming up in the nearby region and SEZs getting announced near the coastal area.

Hiren had to often set sail in the high sea in order to get a decent catch. Sometime the sail would be for 10 days, some times for 12. Sometimes the boat would return without a full boatload of fish. Hope is what kept the entire industry going.

Hiren reached the boat and greeted everyone. Apart from him there were 10 more on the boat. They were setting sail for 10 days. They progressed deep into the sea. After three days of sailing they had hardly made any progress and were not able to get any decent fish catchment. They had some more days but Hiren had already started sensing that they may have to return without too much on the boat. This would mean a fruitless trip.

He decided to venture out even more into the sea to see if they could get lucky. He was well aware of the risks but he also knew that he had to take the risk to avoid a futile trip.

One of the evenings, Hiren was catching a quick nap when one of his assistants came running in and woke him up to tell that there was some problem. Hiren woke up and went to the deck to figure what the ruckus was about. He got the shock of his life at what he saw in the sea.

Sailing right besides their ship was a ship of Pakistan Maritime Security Agency who had started interrogation about where the boat was from and what were they doing there etc. Hiren being the captain of the ship immediately went ahead and offered an explanation that they were out for fishing and set out in the high sea to get a good catch. Despite a lot of explanation and justification, Hiren noticed that his boat was suddenly surrounded by 4 other PMSA ships and some officers came on the deck of Hiren's boat. Hiren explained everything in all possible ways but it was all in vain.

PMSA kept asking Hiren to justify why should they believe that they are fishermen and not agents of the Indian Intelligence agencies who has entered into the Pakistani Territory.

It hit Hiren suddenly that they had possibly entered the Pakistani Territory unintentionally. But he also knew that whether it was intentional or not, he and the entire crew would be arrested. It happened exactly the same way. All of them were arrested and along with the ship and all equipment were taken to the Pakistani Karachi port where they were kidnapped and treated like prisoner's of war. Every day they were grilled and questioned about their involvement in a conspiracy against Pakistan. Eventually the grilling stopped but the release was not in sight. Hiren and all his crew members were at the mercy of the Pakistani agencies and the government.

Hiren would keep looking outside his cell in the prison and think when and how would he get released. He had started missing his home, family and country. He wept and wept and wept every day. He could not really see any light at the end of the tunnel.

Back home, all families and friends of the people who were captured had already filed a missing report and were constantly following with the Indian police and security agencies about the missing people. However all of the follow up was all waste. They didn't get any good news.

This incident had happened 5 years back and nothing has changed even today. Hiren still awaits his release from the prison in Pakistan. His family still follows up with the agencies in India and still gets the same Helpless response from the security agencies here - "we will let you know once we have any update."

There are over 500 such fishermen who have been kidnapped by the PMSA and not released even after having enough evidence that they are not agents of security agencies in India. Many get kidnapped often and no one has a clue about the whereabouts. The reason for this has many aspects - no high tech equipment to check whether they are near the border or not, a very unclear marine border in the Arabian sea etc etc.

The government officials last year announced that they were able to get a release of 1750 such fishermen. They also announced that 1623 were kidnapped in one year. The lame joy that the government was celebrating was that - we have been able to get back more than they kidnapped.

For the government it may be just numbers, but it forgets that for Hiren's family he is the only one and it doesn't matter how many got released, all that they care is Hiren is not with them. They don't know, when he will come back. They don't know whether he will come back. They don't even know whether he is still alive!

In the meanwhile, the fish lovers wait for great quality fish from the high sea. There is some other Hiren who will keep venturing out and keep getting it for the customers. That's how the economics work!