SOURCE: PTI
The Pakistan government may seek the help of India to retrieve the bodies of 14 fishermen who are missing after their boat capsized near Keti Bandar in the country’s Sindh province. Forty-five fishermen belonging to Ibrahim Hyder– a fishing village in the Malir district of Sindh, had gone fishing but their boat capsized at Hijamkro Creek near Keti Bandar in Thatta on March 5.
Thirty-one of the fishermen were saved while 14 others were still missing. A search operation by divers of the Pakistan Navy, Maritime Security Agencies and Edhi Foundation to find the missing men continued on Saturday but the 14 missing fishermen could not be traced, officials said.
Lawmaker Agha Rafiullah of the Pakistan Peoples Party told the Dawn newspaper that he had talked to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday, asking them to approach Indian authorities and seek their help to trace the missing fishermen.
He said Prime Minister Sharif assured him that the government would take up that matter with the Indian authorities as there were ‘apprehensions’ that tidal waves might have taken the missing fishermen to the territorial limits of India.
Rafiullah, who has been elected from a Karachi constituency, added that the missing fishermen belonged to his constituency in Ibrahim Hyderi and he was in touch with their relatives.
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum official Kamal Shah also apprehended that high waves might have taken the fishermen to the territorial waters of India as they had not been found after a search of four days.