18 more Pakistani boats nabbed near border in Gujarat, three crew also caught

Bhuj, Sep 7: A day after seizure of three Pakistani boats with two intruders from the neighbouring country from Haraminala close to the international border in Kutch district of Gujarat, the Border Security Force (BSF) patrol teams today again nabbed 18 such boats with three more Pakistanis from two places in the same marshy water body connected with Arabian sea, a senior official of the force said. Fourteen of the boats were nabbed from near the border pillar 1162 in Haraminala, a marshy creek like area of Arabian sea. There were over three dozen people in the boats of whom others managed to flee in to the Pakistani territory leaving their boats behind from the quite close-by land border. Three of them (aged between 20 to 25 years) who have identified themselves as Yusuf, Sazzad and Imam, residents of Jatti village of Pakistan situated around 40 km from the border, have been nabbed. They all prima facie seem to be fishermen like the ones nabbed yesterday. Nothing objectionable or suspicious has been recovered from the boats. However, they were being interrogated. The boats were nabbed at around 330 am in the wee hours today, he said. Another four similar Pakistani boats were found in abandoned condition near border pillar 1168 in the Haramilana later today. Nothing objectionable was found in them as well. Their occupants had most likely fled in to the Pakistani territory fearing approach of BSF patrol boats, he said. The BSF official said that all the 21 boats caught so far were of 25 ft x 4 ft dimension fitted with low cost Chinese fans as propellers. "Such low noise fans are used instead of regular motors so that these can be be used for entering in out territory stealthily," he said. Earlier yesterday, two boats were seized from near the border pillar 1166 in the Haraminala. There were total seven people in the three boats of whom five managed to flee in to the Pakistani territory leaving their boats behind from the quite close-by land border. Two of them (aged between 20 to 25 years) were nabbed. However, nothing suspicious has been found from the boats. Some fishing equipment, diesel cans, utensils, cloths, fishes have been found in them, the official said adding that it was most likely being used for fishing in 'prawn rich Indian marshy area' from where several such boats have been caught in the past. The occupants of the boat most likely fishermen from Pakistan were doing fishing illegally in the Indian waters, he said. Notably on August 18 also one such boat was nabbed from Haraminala area close to pillar number 1163 but those sitting in it managed to flee to the Pakistani territory. Meanwhile, police and intelligence agencies were interrogating the nabbed ones. 'They were in all likelihood fishermen from the neighbouring country who had ventured stealthily in to the Indian waters to catch fish but as a precautionary measure we are interrogating them deeply,' the official said. UNI