TOKYO, June 15: Eleven Pakistani sailors went missing in Tokyo as they took part in a rare naval goodwill visit to Japan, officials said on Friday.

“Eleven personnel from our Pakistan Navy have disappeared. It is a very regrettable incident,” Pakistani embassy spokesman Muhammad Abdul Wahid Khan said.

The men were among nearly 700 Pakistani naval personnel aboard the two ships on this week’s visit. They vanished during a tour of Tokyo whose highlight was a stop in the frenetic Akihabara district, a haven for electronics goods and Japan’s comic-book subculture.

“We have asked the Japanese authorities to apprehend the people so that we can immediately deport them and so they can face legal action,” Wahid said.

The navy realised late on Thursday that the men were missing. The two ships, the PNS Moawin and PNS Babur, left on Friday without the sailors at the end of the four-day visit.

A Tokyo police spokesman confirmed that the sailors were missing but put the number at 10.

It was only the second time that Pakistani naval ships have gone to Japan.

Japan has been building ties with Pakistan, particularly since the September 11, 2001 attacks which put the South Asian country on the frontline of the US-led “war on terror.” Japan, the only nation to have suffered atomic attack, had friction in the past both with Pakistan and its rival India over their nuclear weapons.

Separately, Kyodo News said the Japan Coast Guard complained that one of the Pakistani ships accidentally discharged water contaminated with oil and sewage, causing a 2km spill that was cleaned up.—AFP