Coast Guard seizes Pakistani boat with 9 crew members for illegally entering Indian waters
Ahmedabad (PTI): The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) has seized a Pakistani fishing boat with nine crew members inside Indian waters near the International Maritime Boundary Line, officials said on Thursday.
The boat is being brought to Porbandar, they said.
“In a swift and precise night operation, an Indian Coast Guard ship, while on patrol in the Arabian Sea, sighted a Pakistani fishing boat inside Indian waters near the notional International Maritime Boundary Line on January 14, 2026,” Gujarat Defence PRO Wing Commander Abhishek Kumar Tiwari said in a post on X.
When challenged, the boat attempted to flee towards the Pakistani side, he said. “However, the ICG ship intercepted and boarded the boat in Indian waters. A total of nine crew members were found on board the Pakistani boat, Al-Madina,” he added.
The boat is being towed to Porbandar by an ICG ship for thorough “rummaging” and joint interrogation of the crew by agencies concerned, the post said.
“The operation reaffirms the ICG’s unwavering commitment to securing Bharat’s maritime frontiers through relentless vigilance and law enforcement across the nation’s maritime domain,” it added.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll rises to 10 with recovery of one more body; 3 tourists still missing
Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a child was retrieved on Saturday evening from Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy that took place two days ago to ten, while search continued for three missing tourists.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening with some of the survivors alleging negligence and safety lapses such as life jackets not being distributed in time.
The body recovered on Saturday evening was possibly that of six-year-old Viraj Soni, said Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra.
"The identity will be confirmed after family members identify the body," he told PTI.
Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria, his five-year-old son Tamil, and another child Mayuram (5) who had come from southern India were still missing.
Authorities have arranged equipment to search deep waters of the dam and are getting a generator to facilitate diving operations, Mishra added.
Divers and disaster response teams have expanded the search radius to five km, he said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued, police said.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, joined the search operation that resumed at 5 on Saturday morning. The operation, involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, was briefly affected at around 9 am due to strong winds, officials said.
Post-mortem examinations of nine deceased persons have been completed, Mishra said.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will also register a First Information Report in the case soon," he said.
Police said CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned operation of similar vessels in the state.
