The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 16 fishermen in two separate locations on Wednesday night.
A day after taking into custody 17 fishermen from Nagapattinam , the Navy arrested 16 fishermen from Rameswaram – five on the high seas, south of Delft island, and 11 fishing north of Mannar on charges of poaching in the Sri Lankan waters.
They were part of 3,000-odd fishermen, who had set out in about 600 mechanised boats on Wednesday. Fishermen leaders expressed shock that the arrests continued even after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa took up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody is 73
