Rameswaram: In the second such incident this month, Sri Lankan Navy today arrested 11 Tamil Nadu fishermen and seized their boat while fishing near Katchatheevu islet on charges of crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line and fishing in their waters, Fisheries Department sources said here.
All the arrested fishermen were taken to Talaimannar, Assistant Director of Fisheries Department Gopinath said.
The Sri Lanka Navy had on November one arrested five Tamil Nadu fishermen and seized their boat on charges of crossing the IMBL.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written letters on various occasions to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to take up the arrest of the state’s fishermen with Sri Lanka and sought their release.
“I have repeatedly and emphatically pointed out that the unconstitutionality of the Indo-Sri Lankan agreements of 1974 and 1976 and the ceding of the Katchatheevu islet, is the root cause of the problem,” she had said in one of her letters.
PTI