New Delhi: After an Indian fisherman was killed and another injured in firing by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) Saturday, New Delhi is planning to strongly raise the incident with Islamabad, government sources have told ThePrint.
According to a source, the PMSA, in “an unprovoked firing incident, fired upon at an Indian fishing boat ‘Jalpari’, resulting in death of one Indian fisherman and leaving another injured”.
The injured fisherman is being treated at a hospital in Okha, Gujarat.
Sources said India has taken “serious note” of this incident and will raise the matter “diplomatically with the Pakistan side”. The incident is under investigation.
According to the Gujarat Police, the incident occurred at around 4 pm Saturday.
“A fisherman from Thane in Maharashtra, who was on a fishing boat ‘Jalpari’, was killed after the PMSA personnel opened fire on him and other crew members on Saturday evening,” Devbhumi Dwarka Superintendent of Police Sunil Joshi said.
Joshi also confirmed that there were seven crew members on board.
The body of the deceased fisherman, Sridhar Ramesh Chamre (32), was brought to Okha port Sunday, and an FIR was registered by the Porbandar Navi Bandar police, which has jurisdiction across Gujarat over any incident that occurs beyond 12 nautical miles in the Arabian Sea, PTI reported, quoting Joshi.
The Indian Coast Guard added in a statement: “The case is under investigation at present by police authorities, and crew are being interviewed jointly.”
What Pakistan is saying
Sources in the Pakistan government have said the boat was apprehended for poaching within the country’s waters. There were many boats roaming in that area but they left after warning from the PMSA. But one boat did not comply with those warnings and hence it got apprehended, the name of which is ‘Madani’, sources said.
The Indian Coast Guard could not confirm whether Pakistan had apprehended any boat.
Pakistan government sources also said that according to the PMSA’s standard operating procedure, it does not engage in firing of weapons on fishermen, since they come from poor backgrounds.
Recent tensions between India, Pakistan
India and Pakistan are once again engaged in diplomatic wrangling of sorts. Last week, Pakistan rejected India’s invitation to attend a security conference on Afghanistan at the level of National Security Advisors (NSA), to be chaired by Ajit Doval on 10 November.
Prior to this, Pakistan put a halt to the regular operations of the recently resumed Srinagar-Sharjah direct flight by not granting overflight rights. New Delhi has requested Islamabad to restore the clearance in the “larger interest of common people”.
(Edited by Shreyas Sharma)
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