After deadly boat capsize off southern Pakistan, survivor with no other means plans return to sea

Sharifullah, 44, survivor of March 5 boat capsize speaks during an interview with Arab News in Karachi on March 19, 2024. (AN Photo)

• Fishing boat Assad, with 45 on board, capsized in Arabia Sea off Hajjamro Creek on March 5
• Families of two fishermen, who are still missing, wait for their bodies to bid a final goodbye

KARACHI: Sharifullah, a 44-year-old father of eight, embarked on a fishing expedition this month, unaware that not everyone on board would return to the shore in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi.
Of the 45 fishermen who left the coastal village of Ibrahim Hyderi aboard the vessel, Assad, 31 could be rescued and 14 went missing into the Arabian Sea after their boat capsized off the Hajjamro Creek near Keti Bandar, 150 kilometers from Karachi, on March 5.
It took Pakistan Navy and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency several days to retrieve bodies of 12 missing fishermen from the rough, choppy sea. Two are still unaccounted for.
Sharifullah, who only gave his second name, recounted they were returning to the shore, delighted over the large haul of fish, when their vessel went down into waters after developing a malfunction.
“The fish loaded, the net taken up, and when the boat was filled, we happily headed toward our homes after having a hearty breakfast,” he told Arab News, adding the boat started sinking due to a malfunction in its water pump at around 3am on March 5.
The first thing they did was to discard the precious fish they had spent 12 hours catching, according to the 44-year-old.
“When the back part of the boat started sinking into the water, and we all climbed toward the front. We were there for about five to six minutes, when suddenly a huge wave came from the front, and when the wave hit, everyone was scattered,” he said.
“Someone was taking a drum, someone without anything. Everyone was in the process of saving his own life. It was dark, some were drowning, some were surviving, no one knew anything.”
Sharifullah recalled how the harrowing incident claimed lives of more than a dozen of his fellows, but the pain is even greater for the families of the two fishermen who are still missing.
The family of 20-year-old Riaz Fayaz, one of the two missing fishermen, still gazes toward the shore, praying for his remains to arrive so they can bid him a final goodbye.
“I hope he is found so that I can arrange his funeral, and my heart finds some peace knowing my child has been found,” Abubakar Siddique, Fayaz’s elder brother and guardian, told Arab News. “Whether alive or dead, the government should find our child and bring him to us.”
Siddique said Fayaz was quite young when their father passed away and their mother remarried.
“I raised him in such a way that he never felt the lacking of anything,” he said. “We joked around. He used to tease a lot. I miss him a lot, I miss him very much.”
Sharifullah, who is also a relative of Fayaz, recalled how the 20-year-old “humorous lad” attempted to save his life by holding onto a water can.
“I myself told Riaz, ‘If you let [the can] go, it would be difficult to survive because we are away, the shore is far, and it will take time for people to come to us,’” Sharifullah said, adding he did not know what happened after a while as it was pitch dark.
“May no fisherman, no mother’s child be lost, no brother be lost from his brother,” he said.
Despite miraculously surviving the incident, Sharifullah plans to return to the sea as he has no other alternative to feed his family of nine.
“I will have to go as this is our work. When one lives in a rented house, doesn’t possess a home, he needs to work hard,” he said.
“Death will come here [on ground] too; there is no escape from it there [at sea] either.”