The Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency said Friday it had arrested 13 Indian fishermen and seized three boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the Arabian Sea.
‘Our officials seized three Indian fishing boats, arrested 13 crew members 55 nautical miles inside our territorial waters and they have been handed over to the police,’ MSA spokesman Lieutenant Commander Shakeel Ahmed Khan said.
‘The arrested people seem to be fishermen, but they are still being interrogated by the relevant security organs to establish their exact identity and intent for operating in our waters,’ he said.
The South Asian rivals frequently seize each other's fishermen, accusing them of violating their respective zones in the Arabian Sea, before swapping hundreds of them in exchanges.
Authorities here estimate that more than 100 Pakistani fishermen are languishing in Indian jails while Indian authorities say nearly 500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.
The relations between Delhi and Islamabad plummeted after 10 gunmen killed 166 people on a 60-hour rampage in Mumbai last November.
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