Pak arrests 27 Indian fishermen, holds boats

Karachi, Nov 8: Pakistani maritime security forces arrested 27 Indian fishermen and impounded five boats for illegally entering Pakistan's territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, a security official said today.

The arrests were made yesterday about 60 nautical miles inside Pakistan's exclusive economic zone, said Lieutenant-Commander Atiq Ur Rehman, a spokesman for the Maritime Security Agency.

''Indian fishermen have been warned time and again not to indulge in illegal fishing but they repeatedly come into our economic zone to explore our rich fish resources at the mouth of Indus delta,'' he said.

In September last year, Pakistan and India exchanged 687 civilian prisoners, most of them fishermen.

REUTERS