Sri Lankan Navy arrests five fishermen

Sri Lankan Navy has arrested five Rameswaram fishermen on a charge of poaching in the island nation’s waters when they were fishing west of Delft island on Saturday night. The fishermen, part of 3,000-odd group who set out on Saturday morning, were fishing on the high seas when the Lankan Navy arrested them along with their trawlers, according to reports received here.

They were handed over to the Jaffna Inspector of Fisheries and produced before a magistrate in Kayts on Sunday and remanded in judicial custody in Jaffna prison till July 15. With this, the Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 34 fishermen, including 22 from Rameswaram, in the new fishing season, which began on May 30. More than 100 trawlers, confiscated by the Lankan Navy since last year, were detained at Lankan ports.