Indian navy boards another Maldivian fishing boat as row deepens

The Bodu Kanneli Masveringe Union (BKMU) has said that Indian naval troops have boarded another Maldivian fishing vessel late Thursday.

The first of this case occurred on Wednesday when Indian troops boarded three Maldivian boats fishing for large yellowfin tuna well within the Maldivian economic zone, coming onboard without permission and with weapons, reportedly terrorizing the fishermen.

The Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed that the Indian coastguard had done so without coordinating with the Maldives government which it labelled as a violation of international law.

The BKMU has said that this incident had repeated again on Thursday night, not even 24 hours after the three local fishing vessels had been boarded on Wednesday. 

According to the union, at around midnight on Thursday, a large Indian military vessel had stopped the Maahoara-3 fishing boat from H.A. Ihavandhoo, had boarded and threatened the fishermen. The boat had been fishing about 3 miles away from the Molhadhoo buoy in the upper-north atoll.

Although the matter has been reported to the relevant authorities, MNDF is yet to comment on the latest incident.

The Defense Ministry issued a statement on Friday evening regarding the Wednesday incident. They confirmed that the Indian boarding teams that went aboard the three local fishing vessels were from Indian Coast Guard Ship 246 and 253. The incident occurred 72 nautical miles east of H.A. Dhidhoo. The statement did say that the move was made "without coordination with any relevant authorities" in Maldives.

The fishermen's union released videos showing Indian troops boarding the boats. While the fishermen were seen to be obedient, the videos also showed that the Indian soldiers were armed when they boarded the vessels.