17 Indian fishermen repatriated to India

Colombo: Seventeen Indian fishermen, arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy for allegedly poaching in the island nation's waters, were repatriated to their homes in India on Wednesday, the Indian mission said on Wednesday.

The development comes close on the heels of 21 Indian fishermen, who were arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy and were repatriated to Chennai from Colombo on August 2.

On Wednesday, the Indian Mission in Sri Lanka posted on X along with the photo of all fishermen: “On their way home! 17 Indian fishermen have been successfully repatriated from Sri Lanka.”

The fishermen issue is a contentious topic in the bilateral ties, with Lankan Navy personnel even firing at Indian fishermen in the Palk Strait and seizing their boats in several alleged incidents of illegally entering Sri Lankan territorial waters. Sri Lanka claims a similar attitude by Indian authorities.

The Palk Strait, a narrow strip of water separating Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing ground for fishermen from both countries, who are arrested frequently for inadvertently trespassing into each other’s waters.

On August 1, an Indian fisherman was killed and another went missing following a collision between a Sri Lankan naval vessel and an Indian fishing boat allegedly poaching in the island nation's territorial waters.

Earlier on June 25, a senior sailor from the Sri Lanka Navy Special Boat Squadron died in an incident blamed on “the aggressive manoeuvres of an Indian trawler, resisting its seizure.”