The family members of C.V. Sulfikar, 48, from Kapur near Thrithala, who died in Pakistan jail, have expressed their inability to receive his body at Chandigarh airport. However, the family said they would receive the body if it is brought to Kerala.
The government had told Sulfikar’s family that Pakistan would hand over the body to India only if they could identify him at the nation’s border in Punjab. But Sulfikar’s father Abdul Hameed said that he was too old to travel to Punjab to receive his son’s body. He is in his eighties.
IS link
Sulfikar’s family at Kapur got the news about his death in a Pakistan jail on Sunday night. His family members had distanced themselves from him over his alleged links with the Islamic State (IS). He has not come home since he left Kapur in 2018.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had reportedly found him having connections with the IS. Sulfikar had lived in the UAE for several years. Since 2018, he was in Abu Dhabi.
Apart from his parents and siblings, his wife and two children severed their connection with him and disowned him when they learned about his IS links.
But it was not clear how he reached Pakistan. According to Pakistan authorities, he was one of the several fishermen arrested by the Pakistan Coast Guards for illegally entering Pakistan’s waters.
Sulfikar was among the 200-odd Indian fishermen lodged in Karachi’s Landhi Jail. He reportedly died in a Karachi hospital with lung-related complications.
