Rameswaram: Four fishermen were injured on Thursday when they were attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan naval personnel when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits, officials said. Sticks, bottles and stones were allegedly hurled by the Lankan navalmen at the fishermen and their boats also suffered damage in the attack, officials said.
The attackers also snapped the fishing nets and seized global positioning and wireless equipment. The injured fishermen have been admitted to a hospital at Ramanathpuram.
Katchatheevu is an islet ceded to Sri Lanka by India under a 1974 agreement between the two countries.
300 kg of sea cucumber seized
A Naval Patrol team on Thursday seized 300 kg of sea cucumber, an endangered marine species, from two mechanised boats in the sea off Kothandaramar Temple here and nine persons arrested in this connection. Those on board the two vessels were arrested, Naval Commander T Satyanarayana who led the team, said. Sea cucumbers which were alive were let back into the sea,and the rest handed over to forest department officials, he said.
Though fishing and trading of sea cucumber was banned by the Centre in 2002, it is smuggled in large numbers to Japan, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, where people believe it has medicinal properties.
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