Porbandar fishermen wary of going into the sea after the Mumbai terror attacks; but it is not all about fear, there is economics, too. Heightened security has virtually barred them from places where one would get a good catch

There are flags everywhere. Hundreds of tricolours fluttering amid a sea of red, blue, yellow and green of the vessel flags mounted atop the masts of fishing trawlers at Porbandar Port. Fishermen say the last time they had seen so many flags at the port, was during the cyclone of 1998, when 23 of them had lost their lives. Then, some 1,500 boats packed bow-to-bow had waited for calmer seas.

For the 6,000 fishermen of Porbandar, the revelation that one of their boats, Kuber, was used to mount the attacks in Mumbai on November 26, has struck like a bolt from the blue. Adding to their shock is the death of five fishermen who were on board the vessel.

Somji Lodhani, a khalasi or a helper on a fishing boat, said, “I have never experienced such fear and shock in the last 17 years in the sea. Nobody wants to venture out. Something so brutal had never happened before. Boats have strayed on the other side before but the consequences have never been so disastrous.”

According to Excise and Custom Department officials, on December 1, only 134 fishing boats, less than one-tenth of the usual, left Porbandar. Also, 10 fishermen had come and temporarily suspended their Creek Pass that allows them to go out fishing.

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