Sri Lankan Navy attacks, arrest Indian fishermen

State fisheries department officials said that a Fast Attack Craft belonging to the Northern Naval Command of Sri Lankan Navy arrested four fishermen, hailing from Kottaipattinam village in Pudukottai district and confiscated their mechanised fishing vessel, North West of Delft Island. The arrested fishermen along with the fishing trawler and fishing gear were handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries, Jaffna for onward legal action.

Meanwhile, five fishermen hailing from Rameswaram alleged that they were brutally attacked by Sri Lankan Naval men with rubber hose after tying their hands with ropes. The fishermen said they were fishing near the Katchatheevu Island last evening, when a Sri Lankan Naval patrol vessel rounded up their boat at gun point.

We were taken to Talaimannar port, where the Sri Lankan naval men tied our hands with ropes and attacked us viciously with rubber hose. The windscreen of the boat cabin was also damaged by the Naval men. They seized mobile phones, cash and marine cache from the boat, before releasing us, they told newsmen soon after returning to Rameswaram fishing jetty this morning.

The attack on Indian fishermen was reported two days after Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Ministry of External Affairs to secure the immediate release of 16 fishermen and 136 fishing vessels from Sri Lankan custody without any delay. The repeated arrest and prolonged incarceration of fishermen created unrest among the fishing community in the State, he said.

Meanwhile, expressing shock and dismay over the attack on fishermen, leaders of various fishermen associations urged Mr Modi to take up the issue with his Sri Lankan counterpart and to prevent recurrence of such attacks on innocent fishermen.