Already 112 Indian fishermen taken into custody yesterday, accused of having exceeded the limits of territorial waters. India appreciates manner of Sri Lankan navy arrest operation, and calls for a "joint effort" to stop such incidents.

 Colombo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Sri Lankan Navy took 24 Indian fishermen into custody today, a day after the arrest of a further 112 Indian fishermen. Accusing them of having gone beyond the limit of territorial waters, some locals stopped the boat and delivered the seven people on board to the navy who took them into custody at the Ilawalai police district in northern Jaffna peninsula.

Speaking yesterday to Indian newspaper The Hindu, the Indian Coast Guard commandant Satya Prakash Sharma described the arrest of fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy "a step in the right direction, if the invasion of territorial waters was really deliberate ".

Several thousand people protested against Sri Lanka in the Indian city of Madras (Chennai). The incident is the latest in a series involving India and Sri Lanka over fishing rights. In fact, the joint declaration signed by President Rajapaksa and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June last year, with which it establishes the limits of territorial waters has proven of little worth.

However, after this episode, the Indian Foreign Minister Nirupama Rao visited Colombo, expressing "deep concern" for his country, and the intention to launch a "joint work" in the fisheries sector, to avoid similar incidents in future.

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• Lanka
• India
• fisheries
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• coast
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• navy
• territorial
• waters