Sri Lanka expresses concern to India over death of sailor during operation to seize Indian trawler

Colombo: Sri Lanka has expressed concern to India over the death of a marine who was killed during a recent operation to intercept an Indian trawler allegedly engaged in illegal fishing in the island nation’s territorial waters.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Delhi Kshenuka Seneviratne conveyed the message to Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, sources in the foreign ministry said on Monday.

On June 25, off the coast of Point Pedro in the north, a senior sailor from the Navy’s Special Boat Squadron suffered life-threatening injuries due to the “aggressive maneuvers of the Indian trawler with which he was resisting capture,” a Sri Lankan Navy statement said last week.

“Unfortunately, the sailor succumbed to his injuries after being admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital,” it said.

The Navy said that 10 Indian fishermen were arrested and their trawler seized. The 10 arrested fishermen are accused of murdering the seaman and damaging naval property. The case is scheduled to be heard on July 22 at Mallakum in Jaffna.

An autopsy of the deceased sailor revealed that his death was caused by an accident resulting from a spinal cord injury, the Sri Lankan Navy said last week.

Meanwhile, 25 more Indian fishermen aboard four trawlers were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy off the small island of Delft in the north of the country in the early hours of Monday, authorities said.

Last month, the Navy said it had arrested a total of 28 Indian poaching trawlers and 214 Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters in 2024 and subsequently handed them over to the authorities for prosecution.

The fishing issue is a point of contention in relations between India and Sri Lanka. Members of the Sri Lankan Navy have even shot at Indian fishermen in the Palk Strait and confiscated their boats. There are said to have been several cases of illegal intrusion into Sri Lankan territorial waters.

The Palk Strait, a narrow strip of water separating Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing ground for fishermen from both countries.

Fishermen from both countries are repeatedly arrested for inadvertently entering each other’s waters.