KARACHI, March 27: Pakistan has detained 75 foreign fishermen, including 15 Indians, for illegally entering its territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) said on Sunday.
The fishermen, including 15 nationals of China, six Taiwanese, 38 Filipinos and the Indians, were detained on Saturday, 110 nautical miles southeast of Karachi, said Mohsin Mirza, an MSA official. They were on board two Indian registered trawlers loaded with some 70 tons of tuna fish.
“They will be questioned and handed over to the police for trespassing,” Mirza told Reuters, adding the trawlers were spotted by a Pakistani civilian aircraft.
He said they had a licence to fish in Indian waters but had ventured into Pakistan. The trawlers were registered in the Visakhapatnam city in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Mirza said.
Pakistan and India frequently arrest each other’s fishermen for trespassing in their territorial waters despite a recent thaw in their relations.
Amid warming ties and as a gesture of goodwill, Pakistan released 564 Indians, most of them fishermen, on March 22.
India also holds more than 140 Pakistani fishermen whose release Islamabad is seeking. — Reuters/AFP
