Indian Coast Guard denies firing at fishermen

The incident, according to fishermen, reportedly happened on Monday evening when four persons had ventured into the sea in the Gulf of Mannar region in a boat owned by Sharon, who is also a fisherman.

Fishermen sources said that when the group was fishing eight nautical miles off the coast of Rameswaram, an ICG ship, which arrived there, fired rubber bullets at them.

In the incident, Pichai, a fisherman suffered minor injuries as the bullet had only graced his skin and landed in the boat. As the injury was minor, fishermen continued to fish and had planned to return on Tuesday.

Though the initial information given by fishermen from the boat was rejected as baseless, the fishermen subsequently sent a picture of the bullet through social media and it was circulated to all fishermen leaders.

However, Indian Coast Guard officials refuted the claims of fishermen. A higher official of ICG at Rameswaram, on request of anonymity, said that the fishermen were using the banned gill nets and on seeing the ICG ship they tried to flee the place, but the ship stopped the boat and warned the fishermen not to use them. Later, the fishermen were let off and the fishermen continued to cast the net.

ICG does not open firing even if Sri Lankan fishermen cross the International Maritime Border Line(IMBL) and enter Indian waters. When such is the practice why should the ICG personnel open fire that too on Indian fishermen, wondered the official.

An official from the Coast Guard Headquarters in Chennai said that they have not received any information and assured to look into the incident, if anything had happened, after getting the details.