Pakistani fishermen flown back

July 16: As many as 194 Pakistani fishermen were today flown back to Karachi, nearly four years after they were arrested for intruding into Indian territorial waters off the Gujarat and Kutch coast.

Emergency travel documents were provided to enable them to return home, even as 193 Indian fishermen mostly from Gujarat detained in Pakistan, returned home last night by a special Indian Airlines flight. In a major step towards normalisation of bilateral relations, the two countries exchanged a total of 387 fishermen detained for illegal fishing in each other’s territorial waters.

Pakistan international airlines today operated a Boeing 747 against their regular airbus to fly home the released fishermen, who were brought here from Gujarat yesterday and lodged at the musafirkhana in south Mumbai.