GWADAR: Iranian forces arrested 12 Pakistani fishermen on Friday when they were fishing in the deep sea near the Jiwani area of Gwadar district.

Official sources said the fishermen belonged to Jiwani and had gone out to the sea in three boats in the morning.

The 12 fishermen were in Pakistani waters when the Iranian security personnel appeared on the scene, took them into custody and seized their boats, said officials of the Fisheries Department here.

According to the sources, the Pakistani fishermen were taken to the Chabahar port where the Iranian auth­o­rities registered a case aga­inst them and confiscated their boats and equipment.

“The fishing boats confiscated by the Iranian authorities belong to Kambar Ali, Saeed Ahmed and Irfan Ali, who are the residents of Jiwani,” the sources said.

The incident took place just days after talks in Tehran between senior officials of the two neighbours on the issues of arrest of fishermen and lobbing of mortar shells into the Panjgur and Mashkeel areas of Balochistan.

The talks continued for two days and ended on Wednesday.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017