Pakistani soldiers shoot at 2 boats off Guj coast, fisherman injured

An Indian fisherman is said to have sustained bullet injury in his hand after the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) opened fire on a fleet of fishing boats near the international maritime border (IMB) off Gujarat coast on Sunday evening, security agencies in the know of the incident said.

The incident comes barely 24 hours after Gujarat government lifted the ban from fishing and allied activities like processing, packaging, maintenance of cold chains and transportation in order to give relief to a large number of people who are dependent on fishing industry. After lockdown in view of coronavirus outbreak, state government had banned fishing in the Arabian sea and only on Saturday permission was granted.

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Sources said that the reason behind the firing is not known as yet but they said that in the shooting one fisherman identified as Rambauri Ramdhani, originally from Uttar Pradesh, was injured. He was part of eight member crew who had gone for fishing boat named "OMKAR" registered in Veraval, Junagadh district in the name of Dharmishthaben Rohit.

Security officials said that there were eight crew members in the fishing boat near the IMB along with a cluster of Indian fishing boats when the PMSA personnel started firing at them. One of the bullets hit Ramdhani in his hand. The incident is said to have happened at 5 pm in the evening. Sources said that the shooting stopped after the fishermen came back to Indian water and were accompanied by the Indian Coast Guard and Navy. Two of the boats returned to Jakhau coast accompanied by Coast Guard.

Sources said that fishermen might have ventured into the sea on Saturday or Friday and they possibly crossed the IMB that triggered the shooting.