Six Tamil Nadu fishermen were injured on Tuesday when they were allegedly attacked by the Sri Lankan navy which briefly detained 13 others near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits.
Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday intercepted a boat carrying 97 Tamil-origin Lankans, including 40 children, believed to be on their way to Australia illegally.
Five fishermen from Rameswaram were allegedly beaten up by Sri Lankan naval personnel when they crossed the international maritime boundary line and netted fish near Katchativu islet early Thursday morning, officials said.
Twenty three fishermen from Tamil Nadu, arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on July 22 when they were fishing near Katchatheevu in the Palk Straits, have been released, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said on Friday.
Observing that Indian fishermen hailing from Tamil Nadu have been "traditionally fishing" in contentious Katchatheevu, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ask Colombo to stop its navy from harassing them.
Tamil fishermen being attacked by the Sri Lankan navy has become a regular affair in Tamil Nadu. Most of these fishermen belong to two districts: Nagaipattinam and Ramanathapuram which includes the island of Rameswaram.
Over 5,000 fishermen from various hamlets in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu on Thursday started an indefinite strike to protest the arrest of their fellow fishermen belonging to Akkaraipettai off Kodiakarai coast by the Sri Lankan Navy.
Eight fishermen were injured in separate incidents of attack allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy while fishing off Kodiakarai coast, fisheries department officials said on Thursday.
Intelligence officials on Wednesday questioned local fishermen to verify reports that their boats had been used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to attack a Sri Lankan Navy vessel.
The Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday claimed that it has killed at least 40 Tamil Tiger rebels when it confronted a flotilla of Sea Tiger boats in the seas off Vettilaikerni in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
Over 5,000 fishermen from various hamlets in the district on Thursday commenced on an indefinite strike protesting the arrest of their fellow fishermen belonging to Akkaraipettai off Kodiakarai coast by the Sri Lankan navy.
Protesting the repeated "onslaughts" by the Sri Lankan Navy against Tamil Nadu fishermen, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday sought the immediate intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure the release of the arrested fishermen.
Certain media reports had recently claimed that on Sunday, a Sri Lankan Navy ship had rammed into an Indian fishing vessel, sinking it. This kind of false information may have been spread by Tamil nationalists, who on one hand are trying to defame the Lankan Navy and on the other, are publicly defending Rajiv Gandhi's assassins.
The Indian contingent of more than 300 navy personnel was assisting in the relief, with divers searching the brackish waters and medical teams seeing patients in makeshift tents set up at shelters.
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