A Sri Lankan Navy sailor was killed in an operation targeting Indian fishermen and their fishing vessel off Kankesanthurai in the Jaffna peninsula, in the island’s nation’s Northern Province.
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairsrecently summoned an official from the Indian High Commission in Colombo and voiced concern over the death of a naval sailor, who was part of a patrol unit that seized an Indian fishing vessel.
A senior Foreign Ministry official handed over a formal note to the Indian diplomat, on the issue of persisting Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially the bottom-trawling method, and “indiscriminate poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters”, according to a news report published in the Colombo-based
An official source told The Hindu that the Indian official was summoned to the Ministry on Friday.
“It was mainly to convey concern from the Sri Lankan side,” the source said, requesting anonymity.
The issue was reportedly raised in New Delhi too, when Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Kshenuka Senewiratne called on External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on June 25.
