Pakistan on Thursday said it has arrested 56 Indian fishermen for allegedlytrespassing into its territorial waters.
The fishermen were on 10 boats, all of which have been seized, the PakistanMaritime Security Agency said in a statement.
“The apprehended crew members seem to be fishermen. However, they willfurther be interrogated by concerned security organs to establish theirexact identity and intent for operating in our waters,” it said.
“Furthermore, our adversary is always looking forward to carve out spacefor [a] false flag operation, and its possibility in maritime domain cannotbe ruled out,” the statement further said, referring to Islamabad’srepeated warnings of a false flag operation inside its territory amidescalating tensions between the two nuclear rivals.
Already icy relations between the neighbors have further plummeted sinceNew Delhi scrapped the semi-autonomous status of the disputed Jammu andKashmir region last August.
Read Top Stories
Pakistan and India frequently arrest fishermen for violating each other’smaritime limits due to poorly marked boundaries and ill-equipped boats thatlack the technology to specify exact locations.
The strained bilateral relations often lead to the fishermen being kept injail for long periods, and in some cases, even after their sentences havebeen served.
However, both countries have also released hundreds of detained fishermenin recent years.
