Islamabad: Twenty Indian Fishermen Arrested by Pakistan for allegedly entering territorial waters in the country will be submitted to India through the crossing of the Wawah border on Monday, according to a senior prison official.
The fishermen, stored in Landhi Karachi officials, were released on Sundays with humanitarian reasons.
Police Inspector Azeem Thebo said that with the release of 20 Indian fishermen as Gesture Goodwill, there are now 568 Indian fishermen left in prison, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The fishermen who were released, were arrested for illegally in the waters of Pakistan and fishing without permission, escorted to Lahore through roads by the Edhi Foundation.
A spokesman for Edhi Foundation, a non-profit social welfare organization, said that charity will bear their travel costs to Lahore, where they will be submitted to the border security force.
The Edhi Foundation also pays Rs 5,000 to each fisherman as a Gesture Goodwill.
One of the fishermen, Bhavesh Bhika, who had served four years in prison, said that the boat he was drifting towards Pakistan’s waters at night.
“There is no limit on the sea.
We have no way to know that we have violated your borders,” he said.
Pakistan and India regularly capture rival fishermen for violating maritime boundaries which are poorly marked at some point.
According to the list of detainees exchanged by India and Pakistan at the beginning of this year, at least 628 Indian prisoners were held in Pakistan, including 51 civilians and 577 fishermen.
The Indian government also shares a list of 355 Pakistani detainees in India, including 282 civilians and 73 fishermen.
Fishermen from Pakistan and India usually end up in prison after they were arrested for illegally fishing in their respective territorial waters.
Pakistani NGO Fishermen Forum said that because there was no clear demarcation line in the Arab Sea coastal area between the two countries, fishermen who did not have modern navigation equipment mistakenly crossed the red line and ended up in prison.