Islamabad: Thirty Indian fishermen were on March 22 detained off Karachi coast for allegedly violating Pakistani territorial waters.

Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency arrested 30 Indian fishermen along with five boats for fishing in Pakistani waters, reports from Karachi said.

With this arrest, the number of Indian fishermen in Pakistan custody has risen to over 200. Most of them were held in recent weeks and months after the release of 280 Indian fishermen by Pakistan.

About 100 Pakistani fishermen were reportedly held in India for violating Indian territorial waters.

The arrests of Indian fishermen come close on the heels of the Pakistan Cabinet's approval this week of a proposal to establish a communication link between the Coast Guards of that country and India to facilitate both the countries to take steps to stop frequent violation of territorial waters of each other by fishermen and expeditious release of captured fishermen.

The proposed link between the two agencies was expected to help prevent the violation of each other's economic exploitation zone, exchange of information about pollution incidents, co-ordination of measures for control of major oil spills, exchange of information relating to anti-smuggling and anti-narcotics incidents and co-ordination and conduct of search and rescue operations as per international conventions.

PTI