Trespassing sea borders: Over three dozen Indian fishermen arrested

They will be presented before a magistrate for legal proceedings

KARACHI: Officials at the Maritime Security Agency have arrested some 38 Indian fishermen for entering the country’s territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, police said on Thursday.

The agency’s officials detained the fishermen on Wednesday after they strayed into Pakistani waters. The fishermen were handed over to local police in Karachi, said Javed Jiskani, a senior police official. “They [MSA] have handed them over to police for further legal proceedings,” the official stated.

Police will present the fishermen before a magistrate, who will send them to jail for “violating the territorial waters [of the country] illegally,” Jiskani said.

India frees 20 Pakistanis

India handed over some 20 Pakistani prisoners, 17 fishermen and three civilians, at the Wagah border on Thursday, sources in the Punjab Rangers told The Express Tribune.

The 17 fishermen were in the Indian jails for violating the territorial waters of India. The remaining three were citizens who accidently crossed into the other side of the border.

A defence analyst told The Express Tribune that both India and Pakistan have used exchanges of prisoners to break the ice of strained relationship between the two countries in the past as well.

He recalled that 151 fishermen were released by Pakistan on the eve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s oath taking ceremony in May last year followed by another 38 in November. (With additional input from our correspondent in Lahore)

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd, 2015.