Twelve fishermen from Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Monday for allegedly trespassing into Sri Lankan territorial waters and fishing. An official of the Fisheries Department gave this information on Tuesday.
In protest against this, fishermen demonstrated at Pamban in Rameshwaram and demanded immediate intervention of the Central Government to ensure the release of Nagapattinam fishermen and other people of the state caught by the Sri Lankan Navy.
He also demanded an immediate end to the incidents of frequent arrests of fishermen from Tamil Nadu and confiscation of their fishing boats.
Traffic was affected in Pamban due to the protest by a large number of fishermen and their family members. According to a state fisheries department official, the fishermen from Nagapattinam had left Akkaraipettai in a mechanized boat on the night of November 10. They were fishing south-east of Kodiyakarai when they were captured by the Sri Lankan Navy in the evening of 11 November.
