Ten fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly crossing the maritime borders and released by a Sri Lankan Court recently arrived at Chennai airport on Tuesday. The fishermen were arrested while they were fishing near Mullaitivu. On August 3, Coastal Security Group said that the 10 fishermen left the fishing port of Akkaraipettai on a mechanised boat with the registration number IND TN 06 MM 948 but they did not return to the shore.
According to PTI, “Ten fishermen from Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam, who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly crossing the maritime border on August 6, arrived at Chennai airport earlier today. A Sri Lankan court had ordered their release on August 21.”
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Selvakumar, Raja, Ganapathy, Illayaraja, Sai Siva, Ponnuraja, Mukesh, Aravind, Azhagu, and Velu, all residents of the coastal village of Akkaraipettai, were the arrested fishermen.
While they were fishing southeast of Kodiyakkarai in Mullaitivu, the fishermen were detained by the Sri Lankan Navy on a Sunday night.
According to the reports, the Sri Lankan Navy took them to the Trincomalee naval base in Sri Lanka for questioning.
Earlier, MK Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, wrote to Union External Affairs Minister Jaishankar to draw his attention to a situation of "grave concern" where Indian fishermen were attacked by Sri Lanka Navy and to demand the Centre to take required actions to find and punish the offenders. The CM further emphasised that nine attacks on fishermen were documented just on August 21.