Pakistan abducts 18 fishermen with their three boats off Gujarat coast

RAJKOT: In yet another incident of fishermen’s abduction by Pakistan, 18 fishermen with their three boats were abducted by a Pakistani agency from International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Jakhau coast on Monday night.
Manish Lodhari, Secretary of National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), told TOI that they received the message of fishermen’s abduction on Monday night when fishermen were fishing off Jakhau coast along Kutch’s coastal area when PMSA abducted them along with their three boats.
“Out of the three boats, one boat is from Porbandar town and two boats are from Mangrol town of Junagadh district of Saurashtra,’’ Lodhari added.
Earlier on October 31, PMSA abducted 18 fishermen with their three boats from notional International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Gujarat coast.
Since March 2015, six incidences of fishermen abduction by PMSA have been reported till now. Earlier, on October 15, 27 fishermen along with their four boats were abducted by PMSA off Jakhau coast. On October 2, 72 Fishermen along with 12 boats were abducted off Jakhau while they were fishing in IMBL. In fact, PMSA had opened firing on fishermen in both the incident before they abducted thefishermen. One fisherman was killed in the firing as well.
“Total 117 fishermen along with their 19 boats were abducted by PMSA in October alone. There are total 317 Gujarat fishermen languishing in jails in Pakistan. Pakistan is ye to release 850 boats which were seized by PMSA in last two decades. Last year, Pakistan had released 57 boats were released as goodwill gesture. Pakistan has not released any which were captured October 2003,’’ Manish Lodhari added.