New Delhi: Thirty-one Indian fishermen were arrested and five of their fishing boats were seized by Pakistan’s maritime authorities for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters.
According to a report by PTI, the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) said that it caught the intruding vessels on Friday during patrolling in the Pakistan Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as per the officials. The arrest was made on February 18, the PMSA announced.
The PMSA said that one of its patrolling ships apprehended the five Indian fishing vessels along with 31 fishermen. The boats were then towed to Karachi for further legal proceedings, as per the Pakistani Law and UN Convention on Law of the Sea, the PMSA further informed.
This is not the first such incident. Pakistan and India regularly arrest fishermen from either side for violating the maritime boundary that is poorly marked at some points, with the fishermen from both the countries ending up in jails for fishing illegally in each other's territorial waters.
In a similar incident earlier this month, the Sri Lankan navy arrested 12 Indian fishermen and seized two fishing boats for alleged poaching in the country’s territorial waters, prompting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, flagging such instances of ‘harassment’ have become recurrent now, seeking measures for their immediate release.
Earlier, on February 8, the Sri Lankan navy had arrested 11 Indian fishermen and three fishing trawlers. In a similar incident on February 1, the Lankan navy arrested 21 fishermen.