Pakistan detains 60 Indian fishermen in single day

Despite recently releasing a number of Indian fishermen as a 'goodwill' gesture, Pakistan has taken into custody 60 Indian fishermen, saying they strayed into its territorial waters.

Police official Lateef Babar said on Friday that Pakistan’s Maritime Security Agency made the arrests and confiscated 10 wooden boats belonging to the fishermen the previous day.

Babar said the 60 men would appear in court on Saturday and later be sent to prison.

Late December 2016, Pakistan released 220 Indian fishermen, who were accused of entering Pakistani waters in an area of the Arabian Sea where the maritime border is unclear.

On January 5, it further freed 219 other Indian fishermen, some of whom had been in jail for more than a year, as a gesture of “goodwill.”

Dozens of Indian and Pakistani fishermen are arrested each year amid demarcation disputes in the Arabian Sea.

They frequently languish in jail even after serving their sentences, as stained diplomatic ties between Islamabad and New Delhi hamper bureaucratic requirements for their release.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea states that the fishermen who cross territorial waters can be warned and fined but not detained.

SS