New Delhi: The Sri Lankan Nave on Tuesday (July 23) arrested nine Indian fishermen aboard two mechanised boats near Neduntheevu, an island in Sri Lanka.
The fishermen, hailing from Rameswaram and Thangachimdam, had set out from the Rameswaram fishing harbour on Monday.
The incident has come days after fishermen had staged a massive protest in Rameshwaram on July 19 citing the Union government’s inability to keep the island nation in check on frequent arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen, the Hindu reported.
They claimed that 80 fishermen from Tamil Nadu were languishing in Sri Lankan prisons and nearly 120 fishing boats had been confiscated by their Navy.
Just last month 28 Indian fishermen had been arrested by the Sri Lankan navy after the island nation launched a special operation to nab a trawler allegedly fishing in illegal waters.
According to the Sri Lankan navy, 200 Indian fishermen and 27 trawlers have been seized for illegal fishing in the country’s waters so far this year.
