A total of 538 Indian fishermen and 851 fishing boats are still in the custody of neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
India’s neighbouring countries have released 1,311 fishermen and 57 boats since January 2014, the Government informed the Upper House in New Delhi on Thursday, Parimal Nathwani, Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, said here on Friday.
Nathwani, who is also Group President, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) led by Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement here Minister of State for External Affairs General V K Singh (Retd), gave this answer in a written reply to him (Nathwani) in the Upper House of Parliament.
Altogether, 464 Indian fishermen and 823 fishing boats are in the custody of Pakistan, which admits to the presence of only 303 Indian fishermen. Also, 37 Indian fishermen and three fishing boats are in the custody of Bangladesh and 37 fishermen and 25 boats in the custody of Sri Lanka.
The minister said Pakistan released 172 Indian fishermen in February 2015, followed by another batch of 57 in March.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.