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15 Indian fishermen who were released from a Sri Lankan prison arrived at Chennai airport on Thursday morning.
These fishermen were arrested for alleged cross-border fishing. Tamil Nadu Fisheries Department officials received them at the airport and sent them to their respective native places. According to the fisheries department, a group of eight fishermen were fishing near the Mannar island area on September 27, 2024, when the Sri Lankan Navy arrested them alleging for cross border fishing. They were produced before Sri Lankan courts and imprisoned. Likewise, on November 11, 2024, a group of 12 fishermen from the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for alleged cross-border fishing and they were also imprisoned. After the intervention of the Union and the state government, 15 fishermen were released from the Sri Lankan jails, out of which three fishermen are from Rameshwaram and 12 fishermen from Nagapattinam. Meanwhile, on January 5, in a mutual exchange of fishermen coordinated between the Indian Coast Guard and the Bangladesh Coast Guard, ICG Ship Varad and Amrit Kaur successfully repatriated 95 fishermen along with four Indian fishing boats while handing over 90 Bangladeshi fishermen including 12 rescued from sunken fishing boat "Kaushik", as per an official statement. The Indian Fishermen were handed over to West Bengal State Fisheries authorities at South 24 Parganas post repatriation from Bangladesh. In recent months, several Indian fishermen have been arrested by Bangladesh authorities when they happened to inadvertently cross the International Maritime Boundary Line and entered Bangladesh waters. Several Bangladesh fishermen have also been apprehended by Indian authorities in similar circumstances, the official statement noted. (ANI)
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