Even as she is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written another letter to him alleging that Tamil Nadu fishermen were facing ‘harassment and abduction at the hands of the Sri lankan Navy while fishing in their traditional fishing waters in Palk Bay, a region between India and Sri lanka’.
The letter is a follow up to the arrest of six more fishermen by the Sri lankan Navy on the wee hours of Thursday. With Thursday’s arrest of six fishermen, the number of fishermen languishing in Sri lankan custody has shot up to 21 and the number of boats seized 91.
“It is highly disheartening to note that our fishermen are facing daily threats of harassment and abduction at the hands of the Sri lankan Navy while fishing in their traditional fishing waters in the Palk Bay,” Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister in the letter, excepts of which were released to the media on Friday.
“The Sri lankan strategy of not releasing the boats while releasing the fishermen and thus throttling the livelihood of the fishermen is causing immense frustration amongst the fishermen of Tamil Nadu,” said the chief minister in her letter and asked the Prime Minister to take this up with the highest authority in the island nation.
She also reiterated her earlier demand to annul the 1974 and 1976 India-Sri lankan accord and restore the traditional rights of the
Tamil Nadu fishermen to fish in the region. This is the third letter the Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister in the last one week.