KARACHI, Sept 5: The missing fishing boat Al-Husaini 15654-B carrying 19 fishermen was pulled back to shore with the collective efforts of the Maritime Security Agency (MSA) and local fishermen, fishing sources said on Tuesday.

The vice- chairman of the Fishermen Cooperative Society, Haji Ali Mohammad, said that all the crewmembers were safe and taken to their houses immediately.

He said a helicopter of MSA had located the missing boat on Monday night in the sea near Hangol in Balochistan. “We had despatched two launches for trawling the boat to the Karachi Fish Harbour”, he added.

It may be noted that the boat had left Karachi fish harbour on Aug 22 and was on its way back when its engine developed a fault near Hangol.

One of the crew member, on Sunday rang up the owner of the boat Aqeel through a satellite phone saying that the boat was surrounded by high tides.

The Maritime Security Agency, on the request of the FCS had sent its surveillance helicopter on Monday afternoon to locate the boat.—APP