Lankan Navy arrests 8 more fishermen from Tamil Nadu

MADURAI: Eight fishermen from Rameswaram were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy for trespassing in Sri Lankan territorial waters on Monday night.

The fishermen went on sail after obtaining due permit tokens from the Fisheries Department, VP Sesuraja, president, of the Traditional Indian Fishermen Welfare Association. The fishermen's leader condemned the arrests and sought immediate intervention of the central government in securing them.

The fishermen set out to sea off Rameswaram in a mechanised boat on Monday morning and were expected to return to shore on Tuesday morning

Leaders of the fishermen's association claim that over one hundred Tamil Nadu fishermen have been arrested by the Lankan Navy since 2018 and around 180 boats have been detained. The livelihoods of fishermen became more unstable with frequent arrests by the Lankan Navy, they said.

Two go missing, 2 rescued

Adding to the woes, Sesuraja said, two fishermen, who ventured into the sea off Rameswaram on Monday, along with two others by a small mechanised boat, reportedly are missing after their boat capsized. He requested the Indian Navy and Coast Guard personnel to undertake search and rescue efforts to rescue those who are missing from the capsized boat. The government should consider providing a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to each of their families, he added.

Two fishermen, Darwin and Soosai of Rameswaram, miraculously escaped and were rescued. Emarit of Thangachimadam and Muniyandi of Rameswaram are missing. The rescued fishermen are in Jaffna, Sri Lanka are expected to return in a day or two, he said.

3 fishers assaulted, robbed

Meanwhile, in a third such incident this month, three fishermen hailing from the Nagapattinam district were allegedly assaulted and robbed by unidentified Sri Lankan nationals in the mid-sea on Monday.

When they were fishing at mid-sea about 15 nautical miles off the Kodikkarai coast in Nagapattinam district, nine unidentified Sri Lankan nationals who came on three fibre boats assaulted the Indian fishermen and robbed one of the boat engines, fishing gear, a walkie-talkie, a mobile phone, a GPS gadget and several kilograms of cache worth Rs 4 lakh from the boat and escaped on their boat. After August 7 and August 10, this is the third such attack.

CM shoots off another letter to MEA

Chennai: In yet another letter to the External Affairs Minister, Chief Minister MK Stalin urged the Centre to expedite diplomatic efforts to secure the release of all Indian boats and fishermen currently in Sri Lankan custody, including the 8 of them held recently.

Drawing the urgent attention of the MEA to another incident of the arrest of eight Indian fishermen, along with their mechanised fishing boat by the Sri Lankan authorities on August 26, Stalin said that at present,116 fishermen and 184 boats are in Sri Lankan custody.

“The alarming recurrence of such incidents has caused immense distress to the families of the arrested fishermen and has further exacerbated the livelihood problems faced by Indian fishermen,” said Stalin, in his letter to Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

Urging the MEA to expedite the diplomatic efforts to secure the expeditious release of all Indian boats and fishermen currently in Sri Lankan custody, Stalin said that the livelihood of the fishermen depends on these waters, and such arrests not only affect the well-being of the fishermen but also affects the entire fraternity.