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Forty-three Indian fishermen have been arrested, and seven of their boats seized by Pakistani authorities for allegedly fishing illegally in the country's territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, officials said on 15 December.
The fishermen were arrested on Thursday, 14 December, and have been handed over to the Docks police, a spokesman for Pakistan's Maritime Security Force (PMSF) said.
The PMSF has arrested 144 Indian fishermen over the last one month for alleged illegal fishing in Pakistani waters.
With the latest apprehensions, the number of such arrests of Indian fishermen in 2017 has gone up to over 400.
The PMSF spokesman said the Indian fishermen were arrested as the Pakistan maritime security forces were conducting exercises near Pakistan's Maritime border in the Arabian Sea.
Meanwhile, secretary of the Porbandar-based National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) Manish Lodhari said that fishermen, who were from different parts of Gujarat, had sailed off the coastal town of Porbandar a few days ago.
He said they were apprehended by the PMSF near Jakhau coast and then taken to Karachi port.
Pakistani fishermen, mostly belonging to the Sindh province, are being apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) and Indian Coast Guard (ICG) for illegally fishing in the creek area along the Indo-Pak border in Kutch district in Gujarat.
On 10 November, the PMSF arrested 55 Indian fishermen and seized nine fishing boats, while on 12 November four boats were seized and 23 Indian fishermen arrested for allegedly entering into Pakistani waters.
Choudhary said on 16 November also the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) had arrested a batch of 23 Indian fishermen and seized four Indian boats.
In October, the PMSA had arrested two batches of 50 Indian fishermen.
On 29 October, the Pakistan government had released 68 Indian fishermen from Malir jail as a goodwill gesture.
A total of 438 Indian fishermen were released in 12 days time in December 2016-January 2017 by Pakistani authorities from the Landhi and Malir jails in Karachi.
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