RAMANATHAPURAM
Rameswaram fishermen ended the year on a sore note with Sri Lankan Navy personnel arresting 13 fishermen and detaining their two trawlers on a charge of trespassing into the territorial waters of the island nation while fishing on the high seas on Sunday.
Reports received here said the fishermen, who had set out for fishing on Saturday were fishing northeast of Katchatheevu when the Sri Lankan Navy personnel coming in a fast track craft, attached to the northern naval command, arrested them in the early hours of Sunday.
The navy also sized a huge catch of fish, fishing nets and other paraphernalia, the reports said.
The arrest has come on the day when the Lankan navy repatriated 69 fishermen on their release by Lankan courts after weeks of incarceration in prisons. The navy handed over the fishermen to the Indian Coast Guard at the International Maritime Boundary Line.
The arrested fishermen were produced before a Magistrate in Oor Kaval Thurai and remanded in judicial custody in Jaffna jail till January 9, the reports said.
Expressing anguish over the arrest, P. Sesu Raja, a fishermen leader, said it was very unfortunate that the fishermen were arrested on the eve of New Year.
The arrest showed that the Lankan navy continued to act in an ‘inhuman manner’, he said, adding even if the fishermen had entered into the Lankan waters, the navy could have averted arrest and allowed them to celebrate the New Year with their family members, he said.
