The Sri Lanka Navy assisted the Sri Lanka Coast Guard to arrest 10 Indian fishermen along with 2 Indian fishing trawlers poaching in Sri Lankan waters Northwest of Delft Island.
Having brought the arrested fishermen and their trawlers to the Naval Base SLNS Elara in Karainagar last evening (4), they were handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries, Jaffna for onward action, SLN said.
The fishermen are from Jegathapattinam in Pudukottai district, according to Indian media. The arrest comes three days after Sri Lanka agreed to set free 51 Indian fishermen already in its custody.
With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61.
On January 2, Sri Lanka agreed to release 51 fishermen in its custody and considered returning a large number of fishing boats. This was decided during a high-level ministerial level meeting of Sri Lanka and India held in Colombo on the vexed issue of fishermen.
