Sri Lankan Navy arrests 22 Tamil Nadu fishers near Neduntheevu
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Chennai: The Rameshwaram Fisherman Association informed that the Sri Lankan Navy detained 22 fishermen belonging to Tamil Nadu on Sunday for fishing near Neduntheevu, Asian News International reported.
The organization said these men left Tamil Nadu on Saturday.
Early in the morning of the day, the fishermen were fishing next to Neduntheevu in the Palkbay Sea area, and the Sri Lankan Navy arrived and seized three boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen from Thangachimadam.
On June 19, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to the Union Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to take immediate action to release all the fishermen and their boats caught by Sri Lankan forces.
Stalin had said in the letter that four fishermen from his state who set out from the Kottaipattinam fishing harbour in Pudukottai District were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy from Tamil Nadu on Tuesday.
He noted that the incidents of arrests disrupt the livelihoods of fishers and it also instils a ‘'sense of fear and uncertainty' among the whole fishing community.
In early April, Sri Lanka sent 19 Tamil Nadu fishermen they apprehended to Chennai via Air India passenger flight from Sri LaLanka'solombo. Lanka had arrested them on March 6 for crossing borders. Of the 19, nine were from Mayiladuthurai, four from Pudukottai, and six from Karaikal in Puducherry state. They had gone fishing in two boats on March 6.
Following their arrest, their families had requested the Centre and the state to take action to release them from Sri Lanka.