Sri Lankan Navy arrests eight Tamil Nadu fishermen; fifth such incident in July

Eight fishermen from Tamil Nadu were today arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in their territorial waters, a senior fisheries official said. [caption id=“attachment_2945444” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image . Reuters[/caption] This is the fifth such incident this month. The fishermen from Nagapattinam district were arrested for fishing off Neduntheevu near the Sri Lankan coast and have been taken to Kangesanthurai port, Nagapattinam joint fisheries director Amala Xavier said. On Monday, four fishermen from Jagadapattinam in Pudukottai district were arrested for allegedly fishing off Neduntheevu. On 13 July, seven fishermen from Mandapam near here were held off Neduntheevu and taken to Kangesanthurai port, for allegedly fishing in the Lankan waters. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in finding a permanent solution to the recurring mid-sea arrests. “Such continuing incidents of arrests of fishermen were a deliberate attempt by Sri Lanka to derail India’s efforts to find a permanent solution to the vexed issue,” he had said in a letter dated 13 July. The state government has maintained that retrieval of Katchatheevu, an islet ceded to Sri Lanka in the 1970s, was the “only solution” to the vexed fishermen’s issue.