Saturday, January 8 2005 14:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vadodara: The fishermen, who were released from Pakistani jails and arrived at Vadodara Railway station from Amritsar last night (Jan 7, 2005), said that they faced a grim future without their boats, confiscated by the authorities in the neighbouring country.

For the first time in the past 18 years, Pakistan has released the 266 Indian fishermen without their boats and handed them over to the Indian authorities at Wagha border on January 6, instead of earlier practice of releasing them through sea.

A fisherman Valid Amir, said soon after his arrival without his boat he and his colleagues would find it difficult to earn their livelihoods.

They also said that they did not stray into Pakistani water territory deliberately. "Sometimes strong tidal waves used to carry us away and it was difficult to differentiate between Indian and Pakistani territory," they added.

"We do not have modern devices, which can indicate the border demarcation," they added.

Voicing similar feelings as Amir, another fisherman Laxman Amrutlal said, "This will force us to commit suicide. Pakistani authorities had kept us in inhuman conditions due to which we have developed skin diseases and other ailments and no medical treatment was available to us."

Another fisherman Raju Vaza said that poor quality of food was served to them, which they often declined and remained hungry. Some of the fishermen were getting a daily wage of Rs 10 by washing clothes of Pakistani prisoners. With that money, they used to buy wheat, onion and potato from the jail shop and cooked their meals.