KARACHI - Pakistan Maritime Security Agency on Friday booked 61 Indian fishermen and seized their 11 boats for violating the Pakistani territorial limits here on Friday.
The fishermen were shifted to Docks police station where cases have been registered against them.
Fishermen from both the neighboring countries are often arrested for violation of territorial limits. The arrested fishermen said while fishing in the deep sea, they unintentionally entered the Pakistani waters. They requested the government of Pakistan for their release on humanitarian grounds. They also urged the Indian government to release Pakistani fishermen, arrested in India under the same offence.
In absence of the demarcation of sea limits between Pakistan and India, the fishermen of the two countries unintentionally cross the water limits of the other country. Hundreds of Pakistani and Indian fishermen have been imprisoned in the jails of both the countries due to violation of water borders. According to fishermen organisations, hundreds of Pakistani fishermen have been incarcerated in Indian jails and vice versa.
Docks SHO Sajjad Mangi said the arrested Indian fishermen were kept detained at the police station. They will produce before the court on Saturday (today) and later they will send to District Malir Jail, Karachi. “We have also conducted investigation to make sure all of them were fishermen and no one was a terrorist,” he added.
Condemning India’s unprovoked firing on the Line of Control (LoC) and the working boundary of Sialkot, Pakistan Sunni Tehreek chief Sarwat Ijaz Qadri said India wants to harm the ongoing army operation Zarb-e-Azab by making such attempts.
Talking to the party delegation here on Friday, PST chief said India’s intermittent firing over the couple of months had killed civilians and also injured many along the LoC and the working boundary. India is hatching conspiracy to harm the ongoing army operation in the tribal areas of the country. Demanding the United Nations and western powers to take notice of the Indian forces’ violation of the cease fire agreement 2003, the PST chief said the party would continue its political and moral support for the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people.  India wants to bury the Kashmir issue by practicing such attempts and it is unfortunate that the negligence of the UN and western powers to resolve the Kashmir issue has emerged as a big threat to peace in the region, said PST chief.
Talking about Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Raheel Sharif’s visit to the US, he said Raheel had represented the true stance of the nation and country regarding the Indian’s aggression on the border. He further added that the real face of India has been exposed as it was spreading propagandas to wrap its nefarious plan to harm Pakistan, he added.