Nagapattinam, Feb 24 (Agency) Sri Lankan Navy arrested 22 Indian fishermen and confiscated two Indian fishing trawlers in two separate incidents on the charges of unlawful poaching in its territorial waters, on Wednesday midnight. State fisheries department officials said here on Thursday that nine fishermen hailing from Keechankuppam Coastal hamlet in this district were arrested when they were fishing in high seas close to the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). In another incident, 13 fishermen from Nagapattinam and Karaikal in the Union Territory of Puducherry were taken into custody along with a fishing trawler. The fishermen had set sail into the sea from Karaikal in a fishing trawler.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Navy in an official statement said the apprehension was made during a patrol carried out by a Fast Attack Craft of the 4th Fast Attack Flotilla (4 FAF), attached to the Northern Naval Command in Lankan waters North of Kankasanthurai and North-west of Kovilan Lighthouse off Jaffna. The Navy took hold of two Indian trawlers with 22 Indian fishermen while practicing the illegal fishing method known as ‘bottom trawling’ in Island waters through the IMBL. The Navy also seized a stock fish caught illegally by this fishing method, it said. This was the fifth incident of arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka so far this year. With this, 72 Indian fishermen and 10 fishing trawlers were taken into captivity by the Island nation. The mechanized boat fishermen of Rameswaram were observing an indefinite strike since February 9, demanding the release of all the arrested fishermen and their boats.