KARACHI – An Indian Coast Guard ship had fired a shell at a Pakistan fishing boat early on Thursday (January 1, 2015) causing it to blow. However a report released by Indian Defence Ministry claimed that a ‘Pakistani fishing boat exploded by itself’ when Indian Naval ship approached it.
The Indian official report confirmed that Indian Coast Guards had fired several “warning fires” during the incident.
A research think-tank ir-ia.com in its web site on Friday quoted fishermen in Karachi as saying that the Indian Navy had been challenging Pakistani fishing boats even within Pakistani waters and had arrested several fishermen in recent weeks.
Reports from India claimed that the suspicious fishing ship allegedly laden with explosives was intercepted by Indian maritime guards on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1 in Arabian Sea near Indo-Pak maritime boundary, approximately 365 km from Porbander.
Karachi based fishermen insisted that fishermen were fired upon by Indian Coast Guards while Indian reports claimed that four persons on board seemingly blew themselves after being chased by the Coast Guards for over an hour.
The Indian Coast Guards claimed that Indian Coast Guards had chased Pakistani boats at Porbandar but Indians claimed that Pakistan fishing boat exploded and three men had died.
An Indian report also quoted intelligence inputs received on 31st December that the boat from Keti Bunder near Karachi was planning some illicit transaction in Arabian Sea.
Meanwhile Pakistan has lodged strong protest with India for killing two of its soldiers called for a meeting to discuss border firings. Reports from India say that at least five Pakistan soldiers were killed when Indian forces retaliated to border firing which resulted in the death of an Indian solider on January 1, 2015.
The border tension between two nuclear-armed neighbors increased at a time when Pakistani armed forces were engaged in an internal fight against terrorists groups along Pak-Afghan border areas.
