22 Rameshwaram fishermen arrested by Lanka Navy
The Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday arrested 22 Indian fisherfolk near the Katchatheevu and Neduntheevu islands for allegedly crossing the maritime boundary, The Hindu reported.
They were apprehended in two separate incidents.
The fisherfolk are from Rameswaram and Mandapam in Tamil Nadu and have been taken to Navy ports for questioning, the newspaper reported. Four vessels have also been impounded.
The families of the fisherfolk demanded that they be released immediately.
CR Senthivel, the vice president of the National Fishermen Association, told ANI that the group of fisherfolk from Rameswaram had been fishing between India’s Dhanushkodi and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka when they were apprehended on claims that “they had fished across the border”.
Katchatheevu is an uninhabited islet in the narrow Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. Both India and Sri Lanka had laid claim over the island since at least 1921.
In 1974, the two countries signed an agreement demarcating their maritime boundary. The deal said that the boundary runs one mile off Katchatheevu’s western coast, effectively placing the island in Sri Lankan territorial waters.
However, the dispute has continued to find traction in the politics of Tamil Nadu, especially because it is intertwined with the attacks on and detention of fisherfolk from the state by the Sri Lankan Navy.