A young fisherman from Palghar in Maharashtra was killed and another was injured after Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) troops fired at a fishing boat off Okha Coast, Porbandar, Gujarat, officials said on Sunday.
The deceased fisherman has been identified as Shridhar R. Chamare (32), a resident of Vadrai, a coastal village in Palghar district. The incident has sparked anger among the fishing community here.
Chamare's body has been brought back to Okha and sent for post-mortem, confirmed the Devbhoomi Dwarka police. A case of murder has been registered in Porbandar as the incident happened in sea beyond 12 nautical miles. More details are awaited.
Probe ordered
"'Jalpari', an Indian boat, sailed from Okha in Devbhoomi Dwarka district on October 25. The incident happened at around 4 pm on Saturday. One of the fishermen died after being hit by a bullet fired by PMSA troops. The boat returned to Okha on Sunday morning with the deceased and the injured fisherman, both hit by PMSA firing," Dwarka SP Sunil Joshi told IANS.
"The GPS tracking device onboard Jalpari will be investigated by the forensic team to find out what exactly happened. Rest of the investigation will be carried out by the Porbandar police," added Joshi.
"Chamare was working on the boat 'Jalpari' owned by Jayanti Bokhama for the past more than three months," Maninder Arekar, Chairman of Vadrai Fishermen's Cooperative Society, said in a statement.
The fishermen have demanded that the governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat should take up the matter with the Indian government to ensure that the body of Chamare is returned with full dignity. They also demanded that an international probe should be ordered into the rash action by the Pakistani troops.
Slamming the incident, India-Pakistan peace activist Jatin Desai said in Mumbai, "Firing is unacceptable...it violates all international conventions.
"Under no circumstances traditional fishing boats should be fired upon. It's high time that the governments of India and Pakistan work out a permanent resolution to this issue. Ideally, both should agree to have a 'no arrest policy' also."
Just four days back, the Indian government had released 10 Pakistani fishermen, who were arrested for illegally crossing over to the Indian territory. Border Security Force (BSF) jawans had handed over the fishermen to Pakistani Rangers at the Attari-Wagah border on Wednesday.
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