Fishing boat with 7 Pak crew caught

The Indian Coast Guard Tuesday apprehended a Pakistani fishing boat, with seven Pakistani crew members, from Indian waters. The seven fishermen were handed over to Marine Police for questioning.

The Coast Guard said in a release that its patrol boat Meera Behn detected a Pakistani fishing boat in Indian waters at 11:55 hrs on February 13. The Coast Guard personnel boarded the Pakistani boat and apprehended it for illegally fishing in Indian waters. “The Pakistani boat ‘Al Hilal’ was operating with seven crew on board, all of who are Pakistani nationals. The last port of call of the boat was Karachi in Pakistan,” it said. It identified the seven crew members as Mustaq (30), Abdul Ameen (27), Fahad Khan (23), Roshan Ali (37), Syeed Husain (24), Noman (18) and Mohammed Ramzan (17). “The fishing boat, along with the seven crew is being escorted to Jakhau for handing over to the boat and crew to local Marine Police for a joint investigation,” the agency said.

The Indian Coast Guard further said that it has intensified patrolling and surveillance in the area in view of the present security scenario. In addition to round-the-clock patrolling by ships, the surveillance is being further augmented with the use of Coast Guard aircraft, it added. In December, Coast Guard had caught six Pak fishermen for fishing inside Indian waters.

Before that, it had caught two boats with 15 Pakistani fishermen in November.

UNDER THE LENS

• In addition to round-the-clock patrolling by ships, surveillance is being augmented with the use of Coast Guard aircraft.