PUDUKKOTTAI, RAMANATHAPURAM:A day after over 10 fishermen allegedly came under the mid-sea attack of the Sri Lankan Navy, another 10 hailing from Pudukkottai and Rameswaram were arrested on the charge of poaching into the Lankan waters.
All the four incidents came within a week of the Joint Working Group (JWG) of India and Sri Lanka holding its ministerial-level meeting in Colombo and deciding on the release of 51 Tamil Nadu fishermen from its prisons.
Six fishermen from Pudukkottai district, who ventured into sea from Jegathappattinam fishing jetty, were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy near Neduntheevu in the wee hours of Sunday. Their mechanised boat was seized and taken to Karainagar Port in the island nation.
They were part of around 700 fishermen of Jegathappattinam, who had set out to sea in 210 mechanised boats on Saturday. As per their schedule, they were expected to return to the shore on Sunday morning. But one of the boats did not return.
Following this, the members of Jegathappattinam Fishermen’s Association launched a search to trace the boat.
Later, they were told by the authorities of the Fisheries Department, Pudukkottai, that the six fishermen were arrested by a patrol team of the Sri Lankan Coast Guard with the help of the Lankan Navy when they were fishing at northwest of Delft Island near Neduntheevu.
The arrested were identified as Sakthivel (26), Baskaran (35), Selvam (26), Prakash (20), Vijai (25) and Marimuthu (28), all from Jegathappattinam. The men and their boat were handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries, Jaffna, for further action, said the Lankan Navy website.
They were later taken to Karainagar, where they were produced before the local court. After being remanded in judicial custody till January 19 by the court, they were lodged in Jaffna prison.
On January 4, as many as 10 fishermen from Jegathappattinam were arrested by the Lankan Coast Guard.
In another incident, four fishermen from Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district were arrested near Talaimannar. Their boat was also seized. The Lankan navy personnel took them to Talaimannar and produced them in the district court, which remanded them in judicial custody till January 20. They were sent to Vavuniya prison.
In the wee hours of Saturday, 10 fishermen from Nagapattinam were reportedly thrashed with canes and ropes by the Lankan navymen when they were fishing off Kodaikarai.
Another group of seven fishermen from Thangachimadam was intimidated and assaulted by the Sri Lankan Navy the same day, when they were engaged in fishing in the Indian waters near the International Maritime Border Line. The Sri Lankan Navy’s patrol vessel rammed their boat and the navy personnel then rounded up and attacked fishermen for poaching into their waters.
Titicraj, who was standing on the boat’s edge when the men were assaulted, slipped into the water during the attack. He was later rescued by his fellow fishermen. Later, the damaged boat was towed by another boat and brought to the Indian shores.