Friday, April 8 2005 12:11 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vadodara: Pakistan Government has sent photographs of 173 Indian fishermen to Gujarat Government for their verification, official sources said in Vadodara today (Apr 8, 2005).

The Pakistani authorities have sent the photographs to the Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi, which forwarded them to the State Government as most of the fishermen hailed from the State, sources said.

More than 300 Indian fishermen, mostly from Gujarat, are languishing in Pakistani jails since last year while the neighbouring country had released 794 fishermen through Wagah border in phases on January 6 and March 22, they said.

Meanwhile, political secretary to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel said that efforts were on to get all Indian fishermen released along with their 200 boats.

President of Indian Fishermen Association, Veljibhai Masani said that a fishermen delegation would try to meet Pakistani cricket captain Inzamam-ul-Haq and his Indian counterpart Saurav Ganguly at Ahmedabad during the one-dayer to be played on April 12 to seek their help in getting back 200 fishing boats from the custody of Pakistani marine security agency.