Lanka Navy hurls stones, slashes nets to shoo away over 4,000 TN fishermen

Over 4,000 Tamil Nadu fishermen were allegedly chased away by Sri Lanka Navy personnel when they were fishing near Neduntheevu in the island nation's waters, a fishermen association leader said here Sunday.

The fishermen from this island town who put out to sea in over 590 mechanised boats on Saturday were catching fish near Neduntheevu when the Lankan navy men came to the spot and drove them away, Rameswaram Fishermen Association president P Sesuraja said.

One fisherman was injured when the navy men threw stones at the Tamil Nadu fishermen, he alleged.

He also charged the Lankan navy men with snapping the fishing nets of 10 boats and taking away the GPS equipment from 20 boats.

The fishermen had to return to the shore without a catch, Sesuraja said.

Meanwhile, a team of fishermen from Pudukottai and Nagapattinam is in Sri Lanka to retrieve nine boats seized by the island nation's navy some time ago.

On December 29, 2018, over 3,000 fishermen from the state were allegedly chased away by Lankan Navy personnel for fishing near Katchatheevu.