Sri Lankan Navy arrested 14 Indian fishermen and seized a mechanized fishing boat on the charges of violating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and indulging in illegal poaching in their territorial waters late on Wednesday night.
Official sources said here on Thursday that the fishermen, hailing from Nagapattinam, Pudukottai and Karaikal districts, ventured into the sea from Karaikal port yesterday morning on a mechanised fishing trawler and were arrested by the Sri Lankan Naval personnel, when they were fishing near the IMBL close to Lankan territorial waters.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Navy said in a statement that it had conducted a special operation leading to the seizure of an Indian trawler with 14 Indian fishermen poaching in the Island’s waters off Mamunei in Veththalakerni, Jaffna.
The seized trawler together with 14 Indian fishermen were brought to the Kankesanthurai harbour and they will be handed over to the Mailadi Fisheries Office in Jaffna for onward legal proceedings.
The Navy had held 228 Indian fishermen and 30 Indian poaching trawlers so far this year.
