At least 36 fishermen on six Indian boats were abducted on Wednesday by Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) off Gujarat coast. Confirming the development the National Fish Workers Forum Secretary Manish lodhari informed that he got the initial report about the capturing of five to six Indian boats by PMSA personnel. According to lodhari the captured boats were from Gujarat’s coastal towns Porbandar, Mangrol and Okha. They were captured near International Maritime Boundary line (IMBl) in the Arabian Sea, off the Jakhau coast, he said adding that his organisation got a message and is trying to know as to what exactly happened. “There were 36 fishermen on board these boats. As per our information as many as 10 boats from various ports of Saurashtra region had gone for fishing in the high seas. We fear that the four other boats too might have been captured by the Pak marine agency,” he said. It is worth mentioning that last month also PMSA had abducted six Indian boats from the same area with over 30 fishermen on board. In September and August this year they had captured another six and one boats respectively with 36 and 6 fishermen on board. As per the data by lodhari, in past five months four incidents of abduction of Indian fishermen by PMSA occurred.
Recently more than 200 Indian fishermen were released by Pakistan government as goodwill gesture.