Sri Lanka Navy detains eleven Indian fishermen

The fishers had set sail into the sea for fishing on Saturday morning.

Tamil Nadu fisheries officials told newsmen here that the incarcerated fishers hailed from Kottaipattinam and Jegadapattinam fishing hamlets in Pudukottai district. They were identified as V Chinnapandi, C Manikandan, P Anthony, S Mariyappan, M Sakthibalan, M Sivalingam, R Rajaguru and T Krishnamoorthy, hailed from Jegadapattinam and T Dhanapal, S Mariyappan and K Muthukumar, native of Kottaipattinam.

During a special operation carried out by the Sri Lanka Navy in order to prevent illegal fishing and the various smuggling attempts, all the 11 Indian fishermen who had entered to the seas North of Analathivu in Lankan waters and engaged in illegal fishing on three fishing trawlers were taken into custody.

The apprehended fishermen and the trawlers were taken to Sri Lanka Naval Station (SLNS) Elara in Northern Naval Command for interrogation.

After a medical checkup, they were handed over to Assistant Director of Fisheries, Jaffna through the Department of Coastal Conservation today for onward legal action.

This is the second instance of arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka Navy so far this year. On January 19, they arrested four fishermen hailed from Jegadapattinam village and confiscated their mechanized fishing boat for cross border fishing.