AHMEDABAD: In the second such incident within a week, the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) has apprehended 55 fishermen from Gujarat in the Indian waters and also seized their boats near Jakhau port off the Gujarat coast, National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) has said.
“The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency late last night arrested 55 fishermen from Gujarat and also seized eight of their boats off the Jakhau coast in Arabian Sea,” NFF secretary Manish Lodhari told PTI here.
PMSA had apprehended 27 fishermen, along with their five boats, off the Gujarat coast on September 27 for “violating the territorial waters of the country.”
“The names of apprehended fishermen are not known yet but the Forum came to know that seven boats (seized) were from Porbandar and one boat from Okha,” Lodhari said.
Indian and Pakistani anglers are frequently detained on the charge of violation of territorial waters as the two countries’ borders are not clearly defined in the Arabian Sea.
Many are sent to jail where they languish for at least a year before being handed over to the authorities in their homeland.
While India had freed 37 Pakistani fishermen held for almost 16 months in May, Pakistan reciprocated by releasing 151 Indian prisoners in the same month and also returned 57 fishing boats as a goodwill gesture ahead of their Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s attendance at Narendra Modi’s swearing-in as Indian premier. -PTI
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