Pak abducts 48 fishermen, seizes 8 boats

Rajkot: The Pakistan marine agency abducted 48 fishermen from Saurashtra and seized their eight boats near International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) off Jakhau coast on Monday morning.
Manish Lodhari, secretary of National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF), said that they had received the message of abduction off Jakhau coast when Pakistan Marine Security Agency (PMSA) took them away .
“Primary information suggests that boats were from Porbandar town and fishermen were from different towns of coastal Saurashtra. In the last three months, PMSA has abducted 41 boats and 240 fishermen off Jakhau coast,“ Lodhari added. As many as 441 fisheren are still languishing in men are still languishing in Pakistan jails.
Lodhari said that Pakistan is yet to release 860 boats which were seized by PMSA in last two decades. Last year, the country had released 57 boats as a goodwill gesture. Pakistan has not released any of the boats cap tured since October 2003.
On September 18 last year, one fisherman was killed in firing allegedly by PMSA near IMBL and abducted 24 fishermen with boats.
Sources said that a delegation of fishermen from Gujarat were preparing to visit Pakistan to negotiate about the release of 22 boats.However, the visit was cancelled after the terrorist attack on Pathankot airbase.