“About 50 fishermen have been arrested and lodged in a Karachi jail, and nine boats have been seized,” said National Fishing Forum Secretary (Gujarat) Manish Lodhari.

This is the first time since the 26/11 Mumbai attack when Pakistani authorities have arrested Indian fishermen in such large numbers.

The total number of fishermen arrested has now gone up to 401 and the number of boats seized to 391.

Lodhari said, the arrested fishermen belong to Saurashtra. The seized boats have been identified as Vinayak, Siddhi, Rajsagar, Shri Labh Vinayak, Bhuneshwari, Rijipuja, Survya, Nilganga and Varun.

In the last six months, Pakistan has arrested nearly 70 Indian fishermen in separate incidents by claiming that all of them had crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line and had entered Pakistani waters.

All efforts to get back the captured boats have been in vain. The first-ever delegation of the state government had to return empty-handed from Pakistan last year. The delegation comprised boat owners, fishermen and a government official and had visited Pakistan in mid October 2008 to seek the release of Indian fishermen lodged in Pakistani jails.