Navy rescues 11 stranded off Thalaimannar

The Navy on Saturday rescued and provided humanitarian assistance to 11 people, including five children and four women, who were found stranded on remote sandbanks off Thalaimannar during routine maritime surveillance operations.

In the first incident, naval personnel on an early-morning patrol found eight people — four women, three children and a man — stranded on a sandbank. The children were aged two, 11 and 14.

The Navy said the group had travelled from Rameshwaram, India, and had reportedly been abandoned in the area in connection with an alleged human-smuggling operation.

Preliminary inquiries indicated that they were returnees from the Anaiyur and Okkur refugee camps in southern India, the Navy said.

The Navy provided the group with drinking water, food and temporary shelter before placing them under its care pending handover to the relevant civilian authorities.

In a separate incident during Saturday's patrol, naval personnel found a father and his two children, aged 11 and 13, stranded on another remote sandbank in the Thalaimannar area.

The Navy provided them with urgent humanitarian assistance and said all three would be handed over to the Thalaimannar Police for further action.

The Navy said the two incidents brought the number of stranded people assisted by its personnel in the area yesterday to 11, including five children, four women and two men.