KARAIKAL: The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 14 fishermen of Karaikal and Tamil Nadu off Point Calimere in Nagapattinam district and remanded them in judicial custody on Thursday for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
Sources said a group of 14 fishermen -- ten of whom were from Karaikal, three from Pudukkottai and one from Nagapattinam -- set out to sea from Karaikal fishing harbour in a trawler owned by M Selvamani of Kottucherrimedu, on Wednesday morning.
Around 7 pm, the Sri Lankan Navy in a fast-attack craft vessel confronted the fishermen off Point Calimere and arrested them for alleged poaching. They also seized their vessel and fishing gear. The fishermen were handed over to the local fisheries inspector at Karainagar in Sri Lanka and produced before a magistrate at Point Pedro on Thursday.
They have been remanded in Jaffna prison till November 21, sources added. Families of the fishermen and others have sought the government’s intervention to release them and retrieve their vessel. Pavithra, wife of M Dinesh Kumar of Kottucherrimedu, who is Selvamani’s brother and one among those arrested, pointed out that the fishermen were their “sole breadwinners”. A report on the incident has been sent to the fisheries directorate in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar urging his intervention. Stalin expressed concern over the Sri Lankan Navy's “repeated infringement of fishermen’s traditional rights in the Palk Bay” and said it appeared like a challenge to India. Puducherry Transport Minister S Chandira Priyanga met the families of some of the arrested fishermen on Thursday and consoled them.