A day after arresting five Rameswaram fishermen, Sri Lankan Navy has arrested six country boat fishermen from Pamban on charges of poaching in the island nation’s waters.
The fishermen, who had set out for fishing on July 2 on multi-day fishing along with 500 odd fishermen, were fishing northwest of Kudiramalai point in the west coast of Sri Lanka when the Lankan Navy arrested them around 4 p.m. on Monday, according to reports received here. After seizing their country boat (IND TN 10 MO 2318), the Lankan Navy handed over the fishermen to Puttalam Assistant Director of Fisheries and they are likely to be produced before the Puttalam court on Tuesday, U. Arulanandham, President of the Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF), told The Hindu .
Expressing dismay over the arrest, S.P. Royappan, Pamban country boat fishermen leader, said they practised traditional fishing methods, using passive fishing gear such as gill nets and hook and line and it was surprising that the Lankan navy started arresting them too.
Earlier, the Lankan Navy would advise country boat fishermen to leave their waters, when they crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) but appeared to have changed their tactics now to put pressure on the Indian fishermen, he said. With this, the Lankan Navy arrested 40 fishermen in the new fishing season, which began on May 30 after the end of 45-day ban period. The more than 100 boats impounded by the Lankan authorities included 17 country boats. The Tuesday’s arrest comes a day after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to secure the release of 34 fishermen.
The strategy of detaining the fishing boats even after releasing the fishermen was aimed at crippling our livelihood, community leaders said.
