Sri Lankan Navy arrests 12 TN fishers, seizes 2 boats

RAMESWARAM: Less than three weeks after the new fishing season commenced in the south this year, the Sri Lankan Navy has struck again.

As many as 12 Rameswaram fishermen were apprehended by a Sri Lankan Naval patrol who intercepted two mechaised boats fishing near Neduntheevu in the Palk Straits in the wee hours of Thursday for allegedly straying into their territorial waters.  Nearly 500 boats had put out to sea from here on Wednesday.

The Sri Lankan Navy personnel allegedly jumped into the fishing boats of two Rameswaram fishermen- N Devadoss and Francis, took 12 fishermen in the boats into custody and took them to northern Sri Lanka for enquiry along with their boats, a representatie of fishermen's associations here , P R Senthilvel and P Loyola, a fisherman of Thangachimadam said.  

They said this was the first major arrest of Tamil Nadu fishermen this year in six months, the last one being in February. The latest incident has shocked the entire fishing fraternity as it has come just two days after the Union Agriculture minister Dr Radha Mohan Singh at a consultative meeting on deep sea fishing with the fishermen community here, had said that the problems arising from Sri Lankan Naval harassment, attacks and indiscriminate arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen will cease, the representatives pointed out, adding, it made people wonder whether the voices of the Central and State governments was heard at all in Colombo.