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MADURAI: A total of 284 Indian fishermen were arrested and as many as 53 boats confiscated by Sri Lanka during 2019 and 2020, the Centre said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in response to unstarred questions from Anbumani Ramadoss, MP. Minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said that 210 men were arrested and 42 boats seized in 2019 while 74 were arrested and 11 boats confiscated the next year.
Last month, 12 Indian fishermen were arrested and two boats confiscated. With sustained diplomatic efforts, the Indian government had secured the release of all the fishermen, he said. At present, 62 boats remain in Sri Lankan custody. Muraleedharan stated that the government has been taking up the release of Indian fishermen and their fishing boats with the SL government at the highest levels through diplomatic channels.
Even in the best of times, invisible strains have haunted bilateral relations between India and its closest ocean neighbour, Sri Lanka. Today, they are all at sea, all at once, and all over again, thanks to two specific issues, namely the continuing ‘ECT row’ and what has by now become the traditional ‘fishermen’s dispute.’
The ‘China factor,’ the ‘Sri Lankan ethnic issue,’ and the attendant ‘UNHRC resolution’ too have negatively impacted bilateral relations, but they have different connotations. The fishermen’s issue and economic ties, in contrast, are more direct and have become as complicated. By extension, the current dispute over an Indian firm participating in the ‘East Container Terminal’ (ECT) of the Colombo Port should be seen as a part of the unresolved trade issues, in which successive governments in Sri Lanka have baulked at upgrading the two-decade old Free Trade Agreement (FTA) into a differently-titled CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnersh
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MADURAI: Bodies of the four fishermen from Ramanathapuram is expected to be brought to the Kottaipattinam harbour in Pudukkottai district this afternoon.
The fishermen, A Mesiya (30) of Thangachimadam, V Nagaraj (52) of Vattanvalasai, S Senthil Kumar (32) of Thaathanenthal and N Samson Darwin (28) of the Sri Lankan refugee camp at Mandapam, who went fishing from Kottaipattinam, Monday, were killed in an incident involving a Sri Lankan Navy vessel in the Sri Lankan waters off Pudukottai.
Their bodies, which washed ashore at Sri Lanka one after the other until Thursday, are being sent to India through the Lankan navy, Saturday.
Their kin and other fellow fishermen said they will not receive the bodies and performed the final rites till a second post-mortem is performed in India.
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