Sri Lankan Naval personnel allegedly attacked some fishing boats and arrested 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits on Sunday, said officials of the fisheries department.
In a goodwill gesture, Sri Lankan Naval personnel, often accused of using strong-arm tactics, on Thursday offered refreshments to a group of Indian fishermen from in Rameswaram when they were fishing near Katchatheevu.
Five fishermen from Rameswaram were allegedly beaten up by Sri Lankan naval personnel when they crossed the international maritime boundary line and netted fish near Katchativu islet early Thursday morning, officials said.
At President Kalam's Rameswaram home, his family hold a prayer ceremony of the eve of his first death anniversary.
The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested another 11 Tamil Nadu fishermen late on Wednesday night, hours after they apprehended 36 fishermen hailing from a village in Pudukottai district while fishing near Neduntheevu and Katchatheevu islet, a fisheries department official said.
The Sri Lankan navy on Sunday allegedly took away forcibly the catch netted by fishermen who put to sea from Rameswaram, when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits, fisheries department officials said.
India on Thursday urged Sri Lanka to immediately release on humanitarian grounds 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen, arrested on charges of entering the island nation's waters.
Fishermen from Rameswaram were attacked near the international maritime boundary line, allegedly by Sri Lankan navalmen who threw stones at their boats damaging about 50 of them, officials said on Tuesday.
Heavy rains on Tuesday pounded several parts of Tamil Nadu with most areas of Chennai witnessing water logging severely disrupting train and bus services.
Thirty Indian fishermen were injured when they were attacked at mid-sea off Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, allegedly by Sri Lankan naval personnel, and their catch was taken away. Fisheries department officials said three Sri Lankan naval boats surrounded the fishermen while they were fishing in mid-sea on Monday night and beat them up, injuring 30 of them, besides damaging their boats by throwing stones.
Sri Lankan naval personnel allegedly beat the four fishermen with nylon ropes off Katchatheevu, an islet ceded to Lanka in the 1970s, fisheries department officials said.
Twenty-two Tamil Nadu fishermen were injured in two separate attacks allegedly by the Sri Lankan navy which also briefly detained 16 of them while fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits, in the second such incident in as many days.
The 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen, set free by a court in Sri Lanka after being detained by the island navy on the charge of poaching, arrived at Mandapam coast near Rameswaram on Saturday.
Sixteen fishermen from Rameswaram were injured in an alleged mid-sea attack by Sri Lankan naval personnel while fishing near the International Maritime Boundary Line in Palk Strait, the police said on Sunday.
More than 2200 fishermen in about 596 boats were fishing in the sea near Katchatheveeu, an islet ceded by India to the island nation, when the Navy personnel came on four boats and intecepted them.
Fishermen staged a unique protest on Friday at the Rameswaram jetty demanding that their boats be returned by the Sri Lankan authorities.
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Certain media reports had recently claimed that on Sunday, a Sri Lankan Navy ship had rammed into an Indian fishing vessel, sinking it. This kind of false information may have been spread by Tamil nationalists, who on one hand are trying to defame the Lankan Navy and on the other, are publicly defending Rajiv Gandhi's assassins.
Confirming the development to rediff.com, Additional Commissioner (Crime) Deven Bharti said: "Yes, we have solved the case. Seven persons have been arrested."
Modi hit out at the UPA government for allegedly 'blocking' surgical strikes post 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday said she would not attend the last rites of former President A P J Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram owing to her health condition and has deputed seven cabinet colleagues to represent her and the state government at the funeral.
Tamil fishermen being attacked by the Sri Lankan navy has become a regular affair in Tamil Nadu. Most of these fishermen belong to two districts: Nagaipattinam and Ramanathapuram which includes the island of Rameswaram.
Relations between fishermen from India and Sri Lanka used to be friendly in the 1970s, informs S P Royappan, president of the District Country Boat Fishermen Sangam- Pamban. Pamban is a small village in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district. Royappan has been engaged in the business of fishing for 20 years and has headed out to the sea for the last 15 years. The friendly equation between the fisher-folk of the two countries was disrupted.
The Sri Lankan Navy has taken into custody 23 Indian fishermen hailing from Mandapam and Rameswaram areas when they were fishing in mid sea. Assistant Director of Fisheries Markandeyan said that the reason for the detainment, which took place around 11 pm on Monday night, was not known. The Sri Lankan Navy has also taken their five boats into custody. Authorities came to know about the incident from a fisherman who managed to escape with his boat from the Lankan naval men.
With this, the number of fishermen arrested for allegedly fishing in Lankan territorial waters have gone up to 44 since July 3.
'It would be interesting to see how Yogi Adityanath is received in Tamil Nadu, where he is due to end his Ram Rajya Rath Yatra in Rameswaram on March 23.'
Thursday will be former President APJ Abdul Kalam's second death anniversary.
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While the DMK dubbed the meeting as only a 'courtesy visit', Rao did not meet the waiting reporters.
The Tamil Nadu police on Wednesday refuted media reports about possible intrusion of Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam cadres in the state following the discovery of some boats with bullet marks along the Rameswaram coast recently.
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Security has been stepped up in five major temples in Tamil Nadu following an intelligence alert of terror attacks.The Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Ramanathaswamy Temple in Rameswaram, Murugan temple in Palani, Kapaleeswarar Temple in Chennai and Sri Ranganathar Temple in Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli have come under a heightened security, following intelligence inputs that they could be the target of some banned organisations, waiting to expand their trail across the country.
Abdul Kalam, probably India's most popular president yet, turns 72.
The Sri Lankan navy on Monday arrested 18 Indian fishermen while fishing between Katchativu and Dhanushkodi. The fishermen from Pamban near Rameswaram were arrested along with their three country boats for allegedly fishing in that country's territorial water, sources said.
The reports suggested six members of the terror outfit infiltrated into the state by sea from Sri Lanka and moved to different cities, including Coimbatore, according to the police.
The announcement of the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan army has not created any flutter in the Lankan refugee camps in Rameswaram and Madurai, but most inmates dismissed the reports as false. "Prabhakaran is not dead. He will emerge stronger... nobody can touch even his shadow," Andrews, a refugee at Mandapam camp, said. "Prabhakaran has been fighting for us for more than 30 years, we know his strength," said another refugee.
"Directors Seeman and Ameer had made some objectionable remarks, which amounted to challenging the sovereignty of the country. They had gone to the extent of demanding a separate Tamil Nadu," the TN leader said in a statement.
Kalam was staying at the 10 Rajaji Marg residence after his eventful term as President ended in 2007.
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