101 Indian fishermen held, 17 vessels seized since Nov 10

The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) on Thursday seized four Indian fishing vessels for entering Pakistan’s territorial waters and arrested 23 crew members, all Indian nationals.

With these arrests, the number of Indian fishermen apprehended by the agency in operations over the past week rose to 101. PMSA spokesman Commander Wajid Nawaz Chaudhry told The News that the agency’s aircrafts and speedboats were used in the operation, conducted near Pakistan’s maritime border in the Arabian Sea, and confirmed that 23 Indian fishermen had been taken into custody.

Chaudhry said the arrested fishermen had been interrogated by PMSA officials before being handed over to the Docks police for further legal action. The arrested crew members would now be presented before a judicial magistrate with a request for their physical remand.

Arrests galore

Indian and Pakistani forces regularly detain each other’s fishing vessels and crews for their alleged indulgence in unlawful fishing within the other side’s territorial waters.

However, there has been a sharp increase in the number of operations and, consequently, arrests and seizures in the month of November. As per official records, Thursday’s operation was the third conducted by the PMSA in a short span of six days.

The first operation of the month was reported on November 10 in which the PMSA seized nine Indian fishing vessels and took into custody 55 crew members.

That was followed by an operation two days later, on November 12, in which four Indian fishing boats were impounded for entering Pakistan’s territorial waters. In that operation, a total of 23 fishermen were apprehended by the PMSA.

Responding to a question regarding the increase in violations and arrests, the PMSA spokesman said the month of November was generally considered optimum for open sea fishing. He said that all the arrested fishermen who were interrogated claimed to have unintentionally transgressed the maritime border.

The fishermen’s claim may be grounded in fact as the two neighbouring countries’ maritime border is not the most clearly defined. To compound matters, most fishing vessels on both sides are not the most technologically advanced and often lack the tools needed for accurate navigation.