Gujarat: Alleging discrimination, 600 Muslim fishermen approach HC seeking death

Ahmedabad: As many as 600 Muslims from Gosabar in Gujarat’s Porbandar district have filed an application in the high court seeking nod for euthanasia. A hearing on the petition will be held in the coming days.

This is the first that as many as 600 people have applied for euthanasia at the same time.

The petitioners said that over the last 100 years, around 600 people from 100 families have been involved in the fishing business and the Fisheries Department had granted them fishing licence.

However, the authorities of the department concerned do not allow them to anchor boats at Gosabar or Navi Bandar port and have been harassing them since 2016 due to which they are facing a lot of hardships and want to end their lives, the plea said.

Despite making several appeals to the higher authorities to resolve this issue, it still remains unresolved.

The petitioners in the application said they are not involved in any illegal activity and also provide security inputs to the security forces from time to time.

In the petition filed before the high court, it is argued that the state government is discriminating between Hindu and Muslim fishermen and is not providing the latter with adequate facilities.