The Sri Lankan navy seized trawlers belonging to fishermen from Tamil Nadu and has arrested eleven of them because of an alleged crossing of the maritime boundary between India and Sri Lanka. 

The navy was patrolling the sea near Neduntheevu in Jaffna in the late hours of Monday when the incident took place. The navy accused the Tamil Nadu fishermen of “poaching” Sri Lankan waters and forcefully took hold of them and the trawlers they were riding. 

The navy claims that it is making arrangements to return the seized vessels back to Indian authorities. But it is unclear whether that will happen, especially given that the island’s Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department auctioned off more than a hundred boats the navy seized from Tamil Nadu fishermen last weekend. 

Proceeds from the auction earned Sri Lanka over five million rupees, even as the legality of its right to conduct the auction remains in question. 

The Sri Lankan navy is also given to assaulting Tamil Nadu fishermen whom they arrest and sometimes murdering them in the waters of the Palk Strait. Rajkiran, a fisherman from Kottaipattinam, was brutally tortured before he was killed in October 2021. 

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin wrote a missive to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sri Lanka’s auctioning of boats belonging to the state’s fishermen. New Delhi has yet to react on the issue. 

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan navy continues to arrest Tamil Nadu fishermen and seize their property, with impunity.