AHMEDABAD, JANUARY 9: A Pakistani fishing boat with 10 crew members was apprehended by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) as it had entered six-seven miles in the Indian waters off Gujarat’s coast.
The boat was being brought to Porbandar for further interrogation, a defence statement said.
It said the boat, named ‘Yaseen’, was caught by an ICG ship during an operation on Saturday night. “The Indian Coast Guard ship Ankit apprehended Pakistani boat ‘Yaseen’ with 10 crew in Indian waters at Arabian Sea during night ops on 08 Jan. Boat being brought to Porbandar for further interrogation,” an official said in a tweet.
The Pakistani boat was reportedly six-seven miles inside the Indian waters and tried to escape from there as soon as the crew saw the ICG ship.
When the crew members of the boat failed to justify their presence in Indian waters after being questioned, the ICG ship apprehended it, the ICG said in a release.
The boat tried to flee towards the Pakistani waters, but due to the quick response by the ICG ship, it was made to stop and apprehended, said the ICG.
The ICG recovered 2,000kg of fish and 600 litres of fuel from the ship whose crew did not have any document, the report added.
Sometimes, Pakistani fishing boats cross the notional international maritime boundary and enter Indian waters during fishing expeditions. There has also been a rise in cases of such boats being used to smuggle contraband drugs through the Gujarat coast.
On September 15 last year, the ICG had in a similar operation caught a Pakistani boat with 12 crew members in the Indian waters off the Gujarat coast. There has also been a rise in cases of such boats being used to smuggle drugs through the state coast.
On December 20 last year, a Pakistani fishing boat with six crew members and carrying 77 kg of heroin worth around ₹400 crore was apprehended in the Indian waters off the Gujarat coast by the ICG in a joint operation with the state anti-terrorist squad. (Agencies).
