Sir Creek snippets

Sir Creek, a disputed area between India and Pakistan, is once again in focus after the terror attack on Mumbai. This narrow 99-km stretch off Rann of Kutch is where the marine boundaries of the two countries are hazy. The estuary is also a place where trawlers from both countries jostle with each other for a good catch in brackish water. Locals call it ‘Harami Nala’, an abuse reserved for an area which is neither here nor there. But also because a lot of smuggling and other nefarious activities happen in this estuary. There is reason to believe that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26 moved from a Pakistani boat to an Indian vessel (Kuber) in this creek, which has long been a source of infiltration across the border.Border Security Force sources confirm that most infiltrators use Sir Creek to get inside Indian territory in the guise of fishermen. With virtually no check either by Indian or Pakistani agencies, this creek figured as one of eight major issues on the peace agenda of India and Pakistan in 2004. The row between Islamabad and Delhi over Sir Creek, the stretch of marshland that lies partly in Pakistan’s Sindh province and partly in Gujarat, dates back to pre-Partition. Both the countries have made claims over this disputed site. In the absence of any diplomatic control, fishermen freely fish in these troubled waters. In August this year there were reports of increased activities by Pakistan in the creek after both countries pledged a joint patrol in the area. Bharat Modi, a leader of fishermen, says, “Absence of any check promotes illegal activities in Sir Creek”. Among recent incidents of hostilities on the disputed Sir Creek area was immediately after the Kargil war, when Indian Air Force shot down a Pakistani patrol plane, Atlantique, carrying l6 persons in August 1999. Then in November 2000, IAF’s MI-8 helicopter crashed near Harami Nala, 15 km from the official international boundary line, killing seven of the 12 air force and BSF personnel on board. It was initially suspected that Pakistan avenged Atlantique by shooting this helicopter which was on a recce mission. Investigations later revealed that the pilot was “distracted” by fishing trawlers spotted on Sir Creek area below. The crew on board suspected they were Pakistani boats, camouflaged as fishing boats. There are 17 creeks of Sindh coast of which Sir Creek is the 17th. These creeks used to be the main estuaries of river Indus of which Sir Creek, a 99-km long strip of water between the Rann of Kutch (in India) and Sindh (in Pakistan) is the biggest and emerged as a disputed area in the late 1960s. Both countries are staking claim to this creek, not because of security reasons, but economic because Sir Creek has deposits of oil and gas besides it gives a good fresh water fish yield. The dispute is in interpretation of the boundary line between Kutch and Sindh as depicted in a 1914 and 1925 map. At that time, the region was a part of Bombay Presidency of undivided India. After India’s independence in 1947, Sindh became part of Pakistan while Kutch remained part of India. Sir Creek, also referred to as ‘Harami Nala’ by local residents, is a difficult terrain to patrol because it is marshy and floods in monsoons.