Sri Lankan naval personnel on Sunday allegedly attacked some fishermen from Rameswaram and prevented them from fishing near the International Maritime Boundary line, officials said. The Lankan personnel asked them to stop fishing and go back at gun point, officials said. They also snatched the fishermen's GPS equipment and fishing nets.
DMK President M Karunanidhi on Sunday slammed the Centre for adopting a "soft approach" on the issue of recurring attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen unlike its "active" stand on the issue of killing of two Kerala fishermen allegedly by Italians marines.
Amid concerns in the Rajya Sabha over arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan naval forces, the government on Wednesday said it is aware of the situation and will take up the matter with the island nation to protect the interest of Tamil fishermen.
The naval personnel in five boats surrounded the boats of the fishermen and pelted stones at them, forcing them to leave the area without fishing on Wednesday night, the sources said.
In yet another incident over a week, a fisherman was injured on Tuesday when Sri Lankan naval personnel allegedly attacked three fishing boats from Rameshwaram in the Palk straits, officials said.
A court in Sri Lanka on Monday ordered the release of ten Tamil Nadu fishermen who were taken into custody by Lankan naval men on July 1, a top official said.
In the second such incident in over two weeks, five fishermen from Rameswaram were on Thursday taken into custody by Sri Lankan naval force personnel when they were fishing near Katchatheevu, officials said. Fisheries department officials said the Lankan navy chased fishermen and rounded up three boats. Fishermen in two boats managed to escape but five fishermen in the third boat were taken into custody. The Lankan navy also seized their boat and took the fishermen to SL.
In the second such incident this week, 8 Tamil Nadu fishermen were on Thursday injured and 13 boats damaged when Sri Lankan Naval personnel allegedly attacked them near the International Maritime Boundary Line near Katchatheevu, officials said.
The 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen, set free by a court in Sri Lanka after being detained by the island navy on the charge of poaching, arrived at Mandapam coast near Rameswaram on Saturday.
More than 2200 fishermen in about 596 boats were fishing in the sea near Katchatheveeu, an islet ceded by India to the island nation, when the Navy personnel came on four boats and intecepted them.
The officials said the naval personnel in eight patrol boats intercepted about 200 fishermen in 130 boats off Katchathivu (an island ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974), assaulted them and took away their catch, their Global Positioning systems and batteries on Saturday night.
An Indian Navy ship on a patrol turned out to be the saviour of a large group of fishermen from here when they were allegedly being chased by Sri Lankan naval men close to the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), fisheries officials said in Rameshwaram.
After stepping up attacks on the Union government over India's participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka last month, chorus is mounting in Tamil Nadu among opposition parties over the country's offer to train Sri Lankan Naval personnel.
In continuing instances of arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Naval personnel, 11 fishermen fishing in the sea between Katchatheevu and Neduntheevu were arrested on Tuesday.
In a bid to strengthen Indo-Sri Lankan defence cooperation, warships and navy personnel of the two countries have begun a joint sea exercise off the western coast, to train Lankan cadets on-board Indian warships."As many as 95 Sri Lankan officers under Trainees and 141 Indian officers under Trainees, cadets and midshipman participated in the exercises," Sri Lankan Navy spokesperson Commander D K P Dasanayake said. The exercises and training would continue till Thursday.
Former Sri Lankan army general General Sarath Fonseka, who was arrested on February 8, has said that the charges filed against him were false.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi said, "There is no requirement of joint patrolling at this juncture. The issue of joint patrolling was once discussed and did not find favour with our government due to a number of reasons."
The recent rise in number of deaths of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan naval forces has raised an alarm in New Delhi. Politicians from Tamil Nadu met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to brief him on the recent killings on the Sri Lankan waters, and also gave him a memorandum on the same.
At least 34 Indian fishermen have been arrested and their boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy for allegedly fishing in the country's waters, authorities in Colombo said on Tuesday.
A piece of torso of a person and diving equipments were found floating near the drowned Sri Lankan Naval ship, suggesting the handiwork of a suicide bomber in destruction of the vessel last week, an official said on Monday.
At least 10 Sri Lankan Naval officials went missing after a powerful mid-sea blast destroyed and sunk a fast attack craft they were sailing at Nayaru in the seas off Mullaitivu, sources said. "One of our Fast Attack Craft (FAC) has got caught in a suspected sea-mine explosion around 0230 hrs in the Nayaru seas. Ten sailors aboard are missing while another six have already been rescued," Navy Spokesman, Commander DKP Dassanayake said.
With this, the number of fishermen arrested for allegedly fishing in Lankan territorial waters have gone up to 44 since July 3.
The fishermen had not ventured into the sea for the past one week in protest against levying of tax on prawn import by the United States.
Amidst stepped up pressure to secure the release of over 220 Tamil Nadu fishermen detained in Sri Lanka, 22 more were arrested by the island navy early on Sunday while fishing in the Palk Strait.
Fifty-three fishermen, including 30 from Rameshwaram, were arrested by the Sri Lankan naval personnel off Talaimannar and Jaffna early Thursday morning, Fisheries Association officials said.
With the latest arrest, the number of Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has risen to 61.
Sixty-six Tamil Nadu fishermen set free by a Sri lankan court after being arrested recently by the island navy, arrived in Rameswaram on Wednesday with the Indian Coast Guard repatriating them.
Sri Lankan authorities have arrested 19 Indian fishermen and seized five boats when they were allegedly fishing in the country's waters. A total of 19 fishermen were arrested north of the Jaffna Delft islet late on Saturday night, navy spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said in Colombo on Sunday.
21 fishermen were arrested and five boats were seized at Kankesanturai while 33 others on five boats were arrested at Talaimannar on Saturday night.
Thirty-eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were on Thursday arrested by Sri Lankan navy for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary line, three days after fishermen representatives of India and Sri Lanka met to discuss the vexed fishing issue.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Sunday squarely blamed the Centre and the Dravida Munetra Kazhagam for the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka and also the fishermen from the state.
The protesting fishermen have refused to accept the body of the fisherman unless a central minister visits the island and gives them an assurance that such incidents would not happen again, Rameswaram Fishermen Association President S Emiret said.
Rajiv Gandhi would have turned 72 on August 20. Had he lived. On a humid night 25 years ago, the former prime minister of India was murdered in cold blood by an LTTE suicide bomber. Neena Gopal was an eyewitness to the assassination, and in this exclusive extract from her new book, The Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, she reveals for the first time what she saw in Sriperumbudur that night.
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