rediff.com: Coast Guard's Ramadan goodwill gesture


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December 8, 2000

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Coast Guard releases 48 Pak fishermen

BOMBAY (AFP) - The Indian Coast Guard said on Friday it had released 48 Pakistani fishermen caught in Indian waters as a goodwill gesture during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"In the early hours of Friday, the coast guard ship Vigraha patrolling off the Gujarat coast apprehended five Pakistani fishing boats," said coast guard spokesman Manoj Badkar.

Badkar said the Pakistani boats with 48 fishermen were on the 'peripheral waters' of India, close to the international boundary line between the two countries.

"In the normal course, we would have brought these boats to the nearest Indian port and they would have remained in our jails for about four or five years," he said.

But Badkar said the coast guard had decided to release the fishermen as a Ramadan goodwill gesture.

"We warned them not to come again into Indian waters. The boats were back in Pakistani waters by day break," he said.

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