The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (MSA) arrested on Sunday 12 fishermen and captured two fishing boats near the International Maritime Boundary Line off the Gujarat coast in the Arabian Sea.
A co-ordinator of Porbandar-based NGO 'Sagar Bharati', Jivan Jung, confirmed the arrests to PTI. "After returning to the coast, some of the Porbandar-based fishermen told us that the Pakistani agency captured two boats and took them to Karachi port. We are trying to acquire more details about the abducted fishermen and trying to find out from where these boats headed to the sea," he said.
Pakistan captured the Indian fishing boats just four days after the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) intercepted two Pakistani fishing boats carrying explosives heading towards Porbandar in Gujarat on the night of 31 December. The NTRO informed the Indian Coast Guard in Gujarat, which then chased the boats.
As the Indian Coast Guard launched an operation to chase down both the boats, one was set on fire by the crew while another escaped. The boat that blew up sank into the Indian waters off the Gujarat coast.
The Defence Ministry believes that the two boats were here with terror plans against India and were carrying explosives. A search has been launched to find the wreckage of the sunken boat and its crew members for further investigation.
