The Pakistan government had informed the Union home ministry about the death of a fisherman from Gujarat at Karachi jail hospital, state fisheries minister Babubhai Bokharia said on Saturday. Mohan Jethiya Rathod from Malkhet in Umargam Tehsil of Valsad district had died on October 2 due to illness, as per the communication received by the home ministry. We hope Pakistani government will fly his body to India at the earliest, Bokharia said. The authorities in the neighbouring country were yet to communicate to the India when would they dispatch the body, the minister told PTI. Gujarat government had completed the necessary paperwork to bring back Rathod’s body, he said. Rajya Sabha member Parimal Nathwani recently had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the issue. Veljibhai Masani, senior vice president of Gujarat Fishermen Association, had also taken up the issue with the Centre. Rathod was one of the seven crew members onboard Sara’, the boat which was seized by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in the Arabian Sea on the charge of entering that country’s waters on December 20 last year. Remaining crew members are still in jail in Pakistan.
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