Following Pakistan Government’s decision to release the Indian boats captured by Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) guards as well as approval of visa to the eight-member delegation of the Gujarat Government, more than 150 boat mechanics from Gujarat and Union Territory Diu have applied for Pakistan visa.
Of the 800 odd boats worth Rs300 crore captured by the PMSA guards over the past one-and-half decade, Pakistan is releasing only 57. Most of these boats belong to Gujarat and Diu-based fishermen.
“The Gujarat Government delegation has reached to Karachi port and have examined the boats and found that most of them need to be repaired. Hence, boat mechanics are required to repair these boats to bring back to Gujarat coast,” said a senior official with the State fisheries department.
As many as 157 mechanics have applied to Pakistan High Commission for Pakistan visa, said the official, adding that of the 57 boats, 53 require routine repairing, while rest of the boats need to be checked by these mechanics on their seaworthiness. Mostly, the fishermen from across the international maritime border are being caught by neighbouring countries from bay of Kutch.
However, compared to Pakistani boats and number of fishermen captured by the Indian Coast Guards, Indian fishermen and their boats numbers are too high. As a result of political influence, Pakistan regularly releases Indian fishermen but over the past decade they never gave back the Indian boats. It is only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Shariff’s meeting at Delhi, the Indian boats are being released.
Fishing boats generally range from Rs10 lakh to 50 lakh. Interestingly, most of these boats are from coastal town Porbandar. According to an official, even if the boat mechanics would get visa from Pakistan High Commission, they will only be allowed to visit Karachi.