Sri Lanka’s Navy on Thursday said it has arrested six Indian fishermen for allegedly fishing in Lankan waters on Wednesday.
This is the second such incident this week. The Navy said it assisted the Sri Lankan coastal guards in the seas off Kovilan Point to nab the fishermen on Wednesday night.
When the arrest was made the Indian fishermen had been fishing 3.5 nautical miles and 5.2 nautical miles off northwest of Kovilan Point.
—Sri Lankan Navy
The six fishermen and their two trawlers have been taken to Karainagar to be handed over to the fisheries authorities, they said.
On Tuesday, the Sri Lanka Navy had arrested 15 fishermen, chased away a fleet of 638 boats out fishing at gun-point and damaged nets of 60 boats, fishermen organisation representatives had said.
One of the boats, with five people on-board, sank during the chase. They were rescued by fellow fishermen.
The arrests came days after the Lankan northern fishing organisations rejected a request from their Tamil Nadu counterparts to discuss the recurring issue of poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters.
(With inputs from PTI)
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