Cordon, search operation troubles fishing in Ea'raavoor

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 22 August 2007, 18:38 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Police and Special Task Force (STF) commandos cordoned off fishing villages 18 km northeast of Batticaloa Wednesday early morning. The search operation in the coastal villages, where Sri Lanka Navy has banned fishing during nights, affected the fishermen, causing scarcity of fish in Batticaloa town and Vaazhaichcheanai.

Ea'raavoor police said the search operation was launched after monitoring the presence of armed attackers in the coastal villages.

The house-to-house cordon and search operation was launched at 5:00 a.m. and lasted till 11:00 a.m. in Ka'luvankea'ni, Tha'lavaay and Chavukkadi villages.

Around 50 fishermen were detained by the Sri Lankan armed forces for questioning and released later in the day.

Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians S. Jeyaanandamoorthy, K. Thangeswari and P. Ariyanaeanthran have already protested against the ban on night-fishing.