Karachi: An Indian fishermen, lodged in a jail in southern port city of Karachi after his arrest in 2006, died today after complaining of stomach pains.

40-year-old Laxman Kanji died in a police hospital here after being shifted from the central prison, a senior police official said.

Kanji had been shifted to the hospital from jail after he complained of pain in his stomach last week, Inspector General of prisons in Sindh Yameen Khan said.

"He started complaining about having severe stomach pain since early this month. As the initial medication didn't work, we had to shift him to hospital for treatment last week. But he died today," Khan said.

Kanji was among a dozen Indian fishermen who were arrested two years ago in Pakistan's maritime waters by the maritime security forces.

Yameen said an autopsy would be performed on Kanji soon to find out the causes of his death.

"We want to know the exact reasons for his death and doctors have been told to carry out the autopsy soon," he added.

A senior official of the Sindh Home Ministry said the federal government will decide when and how Kanji's dead body would be handed over to Indian authorities.

Last week Indian authorities returned the dead body of a Pakistani man, Khalid Mehmood who had apparently traveled to India in 2005 to watch a cricket match and was arrested by Indian police as a suspected spy.

Pakistan and India regularly arrest each other s fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective maritime zones.

The Pakistani authorities have arrested 61 Indian fishermen during the past three weeks.
Source : PTI