3 Pakistani officials drown; coast guard rescue two others

Three Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) officials drowned, while two others were rescued in an accident, approximately 10 nautical miles off Jakhau coast in Kutch on Monday. One of the PMSA officials went missing.

As per the information coming in, PMSA boats rushed towards the Indian waters to capture eight Indian fishing boats. As the boats were being taken to Karachi coast, one of them ‘Mehnoor’ broke down and a mechanised Pakistani boat collided with it.

Six Pakistani officials on-board their boat fell into the water. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ship ‘Arinjay’, on receiving the message, rushed to the spot from Okha on the Saurashtra coast and rescued two PMSA officials. However, by then, three other officials had drowned.

The ICG is learnt to have issued an alert to Gujarat marine police regarding the missing Pakistani marine.

‘Bad weather’

Pakistani news publication Dawn, on its website, confirmed the news of the boat capsize. It quoted PMSA spokesperson, who claimed that the boat had sunk due to bad weather.

Dawn, however, claimed that four PMSA men died in the incident. The Indian boats that were captured are Uma Shakti, Parsuram, Trishul, Savan, Ashirvad, Kishan Kanhaiya, Baba Tajuddin and Mehnoor.

The secretary of National Fish Workers Forum Manish Lodhari said PMSA had released these boats with 40 fishermen on-board.