The first group of 198 fishermen, who were freed from a prison in Pakistan last Thursday, arrived in India and moved to their respective states on Monday. Out of 198, 184 fishermen reached the Vadodara station in Gujarat on Monday. The states agriculture minister, Raghavji Patel, and other local BJP politicians welcomed them. The fishermen were handed over to Indian officials at the Wagah border crossing near Amritsar in Punjab on Friday.Of the 198 fishermen released, five were from Maharashtra, four were from the Union Territory of Diu, three were from Andhra Pradesh, and two are from Uttar Pradesh and the rest from Gujarat.According to a press release from the government, these fishermen were apprehended by Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) from the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Arabian Sea close to Gujarats coast, saying they had violated the fictitious border and entered Pakistani waters four years ago. A total of 198 Indian fishermen were released by Pakistan.The Gujarat government reported that a total of 184 Gujarati fishermen who had been freed by Pakistani authorities last week arrived in Vadodara on Monday morning via train from Punjab. The fisherman arrived at Vadodara on board the Amritsar-Kochuvelli Express.According to sources, out of the 184 fishermen from Gujarat, 152 are from Gir Somnath district, 22 from Devbhumi Dwarka, five are from Porbandar and one each from Junagadh, Jamnagar, Kutch, Valsad and Navsari. All of them were sent to their destinations by the local authorities.Notably, the Gujarat administration notified the Legislative Assembly in March that as of December 2022, up to 560 Gujarati fishermen who had been captured in the Arabian Sea were incarcerated in Pakistan. 274 of the 560 fishermen, according to the state government, were detained by Pakistani officials in the two years prior.Reportedly, a group of 20 people were released by the Pakistani authorities last year in June. Of the 654 Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan, 499 will be freed, and the first of the three releases is the 198 fishermen who arrived in Gujarat on Monday. The second and third batches of 100 fishermen each are slated to be released on June 2 and July 3, respectively.Noteworthy, both the countries, India and Pakistan have disagreements over the alignment of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) at the Arabian Sea. Several hundred Indian fishermen are detained by Pakistans Maritime Security Agency each year for allegedly violating its territorial seas. However, every year, Indian law enforcement officials also detain a small number of Pakistani fishermen for allegedly crossing the IMBL into India.
