17 Indian fishermen arrested by Sri Lanka Navy for alleged illegal fishing
Colombo (PTI): The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 17 Indian fishermen and seized their trawlers for allegedly poaching in its territorial waters, taking the number of Indian nationals apprehended this year by the island nation in such incidents to 413, an official statement said.
The fishermen were arrested, and their two trawlers were seized north of Mannar on Sunday, the Sri Lanka Navy said in a press release.
The navy conducted the "special operation" leading to the apprehension of the Indian fishermen, it said.
The 17 apprehended fishermen were escorted to the Talaimannar Pier and will be handed over to the Mannar Fisheries Inspector for further action, it said.
The Sri Lankan Navy has "held 55 Indian fishing boats and 413 Indian fishermen in island waters thus far in 2024 and handed them over to authorities for legal action," the statement said.
The fishermen issue is a contentious one in the ties between India and Sri Lanka, with Lankan Navy personnel even firing at Indian fishermen in the Palk Strait and seizing their boats in several alleged incidents of illegally entering 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 arrested frequently for inadvertently trespassing into each other’s waters.
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2019 video of Kashmiri woman talking to Rahul Gandhi shared online as recent with false claim
New Delhi (PTI): Amid the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir polls, a video of a teary-eyed woman seemingly confronting Rahul Gandhi on an airplane has been widely shared on social media with some users claiming that she was a Kashmiri Pandit living abroad who questioned the Congress leader for opposing the PM over Kashmir's matters.
A PTI Fact Check investigation found this claim to be false. The video is from August 24, 2019, when Gandhi, along with other leaders, tried to visit Srinagar but had to turn back to Delhi after being prevented by the authorities from leaving the airport. The woman approached Gandhi in the airplane to explain the condition of Kashmiri people in the Valley following the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5.
The viral video was shared by Facebook user Arun Chaudhary, who wrote, "Kashmiri Pandits living abroad surrounded Rahul Gandhi while he was travelling in an airplane and asked him why he opposes Modi on Kashmir issues? Rahul Gandhi could not give any answer to this, the national media could hardly show this news."
To cross-check the veracity of the claim, the Desk conducted a customised Google search using relevant keywords.
The same video was posted on the official YouTube channel of Outlook Magazine on August 25, 2019. The description of the video mentioned that a Kashmiri woman who met Gandhi told him how her life was affected due to the abrogation of Article 370 and the subsequent lockdown in the Valley.
According to a Dainik Bhaskar report, Gandhi and other opposition leaders had reached Srinagar after the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 but were sent back to Delhi by the administration. During this, a Kashmiri woman met him on the plane and narrated her ordeal.
On further investigation, PTI Fact Check found Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other Congress leaders had also shared the same video on social media platform X.
Hence, the investigation made it clear that the viral video was five years old and was being falsely shared as a recent incident.
