A highly placed source told Express Newsline that the possibility of Indian people on Pakistani land was based on the fact that 19 Pakistani fishermen had drifted into the cyclone-ravaged western Kutch coast. These fishermen were rescued by the water wing of the Border Security Force and the Coast Guard. They have been lodged in the Joint Interrogation Centre here.

A fax intimating the names of these `nature's infiltrators' was sent to the Pakistani Government today, the sources said. In fact, with no provision in the JIC manual for such foreign inmates, the JIC authorities who house only trans-border criminals and infiltrators are at a loss about how these fishermen should be treated.

``We received them with `izzat' (respect) when we found them at our mid-creek observation post. We provided them with food and shelter till they were transported by air to the mainland and handed over to the Narayan Sarovar police,'' a senior BSF officer said.

Meanwhile, talking to Express Newsline on Wednesday afternoon, senior secretary in the Finance Department P N Roychaudhary, who is in-charge of rescue and relief operations here said he did not think the final figure of the missing persons would exceed 300.

He said that since the number of missing boats from the state's entire coast was only 66 now, and with 50 survivors from the Kutch coast and 48 from the Okha coast being picked up and the final figure of the dead being 65, only 300 people remained missing. However, he did not rule out the possibility of some of them being alive if they were washed ashore the Pakistan coast.

Of the 65 bodies, only three bodies could be identified. The identification of others was not possible because they were in a highly decomposed state, Roychoudhary said. Replying to a query, he said a public display of the bodies was not worth attempting. He, however, said all bodies had been photographed before they were burned and buried. The recovered bodies include 24 from Mandvi, 40 from Abdasa and one from Lakhpat.