Pakistani and Indian Fishermen Are Pawns in Governments' Disputes, Los Angeles Times, 9 March 2010
EXCERPT: "Hundreds of Pakistani and Indian fishermen have been arrested and imprisoned in recent years, high-seas apprehensions that human rights activists say have nothing to do with border enforcement and everything to do with the 6-decade-old hatred between Pakistan and India. When fishermen from either country are hauled in for questioning, they're interrogated by intelligence agents convinced that the men are spies. The fishermen are often held for years without a trial. Officials with the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, a human rights nongovernmental organization, or NGO, that focuses on the plight of Indus River delta fishermen, say Indian prisons now hold 175 Pakistani fishermen. The organization's counterpart in India, the National Fishworkers Forum, says 550 Indian fishermen are jailed in Pakistani lockups. Fishermen and activists with the Indian and Pakistani NGOs say India's border enforcement in the Arabian Sea and nearby channels has stepped up sharply since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008, which killed 166 people. Indian coast guard patrols focus keenly on the Indus River delta, fishermen and activists say, because the Mumbai attackers began their journey to India from the delta's waterways in a small boat, armed with AK-47s, grenades and thousands of rounds of ammunition. The arrests add another layer of misery for families just scraping by in thatched-hut villages, where schools, electricity and paved roads don't exist."
Read the full story.
Related articles:
End to arrest of Pakistani, Indian fishermen demanded, The News International, 14 February 2010
Pakistan's fatal shore, The Atlantic, May 2009
Fishing in troubled waters [op-ed], Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, 5 December 2008
Related posts:
Distrust over shared rivers complicates India-Pakistan talks, 24 February 2010
Water challenges a "crucial" issue in Central-South Asia, 19 January 2010
India-Pakistan relations post-Mumbai terrorist attacks, 19 January 2010
