Pakistan arrests 16 Indian fishermen

Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency said yesterday it had arrested 16 Indian fishermen and confiscated three boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the Arabian Sea.
“Our officials seized three Indian fishing boats, arrested 16 crew members 70 nautical miles inside our territorial waters and they have been handed over to the police,” MSA spokesman Lieutenant Commander Tanweer Shahid said.
“The arrested crew members 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 in a press release.
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 in Pakistan estimate that more than 100 Pakistani fishermen are languishing in Indian jails while Indian authorities say nearly 500 Indian fishermen are in Pakistani prisons.
Relations between New Delhi and Islamabad plummeted after 10 gunmen from Pakistan killed 166 people on a 60-hour rampage in Mumbai November last year.