At a time when debates are going on over the Pakistani court’s sentence to hang former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, Indian Coast Guards (ICG) rescued two officials of Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) off Gujarat coast.
According to sources, approximately 10 nautical miles off Jakhau coast in Kutch districts, a PMSA boat met with an accident near International Maritime Boundary line (IMBl). In the accident, three PMSA officials died, two were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard personnel and one is still missing.
As per the information, PMSA boats rushed towards Indian waters to capture seven Indian fishing boats. They rounded up the boats and were taking them to Karachi coast, when one of the Indian boats broke down and mechanised boat of PMSA collided with it. The PMSA boat capsized and six Pakistani marine officials onboard the vessel had fallen into the sea.
On receiving the information, Indian Coast Guard ship ‘Arinjay’, rushed to the spot from Okha on the Saurashtra coast and found three bodies in the sea. The officials fished the bodies out and also rescued the two PMSA officials, who were later handed over to PMSA along with the bodies. The ICG is also learnt to have issued an alert to Gujarat marine police regarding missing Pak marine.
The Pakistani news publication Dawn on its website confirmed the news of boat capsize quoting spokesperson of Pakistani Maritime Security Agency, who claimed that the boat had sunk due to ‘bad weather’. The newspaper also claimed that four PMSA men had died in the incident.
The Indian boats that were captured by PMSA and being taken to Karachi include Uma Shakti, Parsuram, Trishul, Savan, Ashirvad, Kishan Kanhaiya, Baba Tajuddin and Mehnoor.
Earlier, on Sunday, PMSA had taken 65 Indian fishermen with their vessels into custody off Gujarat coast.