Indian Coast Guard rescues Pak. patrol

Two were rescued by the Coast Guard and one has gone missing.

April 11, 2017 03:02 pm | Updated 10:47 pm IST - AHMEDABAD

According to sources, a fleet of PMSA boats had allegedly entered Indian territorial waters around 70 nautical miles off Jakhau port. Photo for representational purposes only.

According to sources, a fleet of PMSA boats had allegedly entered Indian territorial waters around 70 nautical miles off Jakhau port. Photo for representational purposes only.

Coast Guard personnel and fishermen rescued two members of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) after their boat capsized in Indian waters early on Monday.

The Coast Guard and fishermen also retrieved the bodies of three personnel, who were killed in the accident that occurred just hours before the Pakistan government announced that a military court martial had sentenced former Indian naval commander Kulbhushan Jadhav to death. One PMSA guard is missing.

According to sources, a fleet of PMSA boats had allegedly entered Indian territorial waters around 70 nautical miles off the Jakhau port, where a dozen Indian trawlers were on a fishing expedition.

Fishermen rounded up

Subsequently, the PMSA personnel started rounding up the Indian trawlers, and they were asked to move towards Karachi port. However, one trawler Mahenoor stalled and collided with a PMSA vessel, which capsized. “The incident occurred in the early hours of Monday, and the Coast Guard’s Okha-based ship Arinjay was pressed into service,” a source from Kutch told The Hindu .

“We were informed about the incident and also about missing Pakistan commando by the ICG and other authorities,” A.K. Jadeja, IG of Gujarat's border range told The Hindu.

While the ICG, has not issued an official statement, sources confirmed that its ship rushed to the spot after learning about the incident mid-sea.

However, sources in the ICG and Gujarat police stressed that the incident occurred in Indian waters, concluding that the PMSA came to capture fishermen who were in Indian waters.

The PMSA subsequently released seven boats and around 60 fishermen who were being escorted to Karachi port in Pakistan when the tragedy struck.

According to the National Fishworkers Forum secretary Manish Lodhari, the released fishermen with their boats reached Porbandar on Tuesday morning.

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