NAGAPATTINAM, RAMANATHAPURAM : Ten fishermen engaged in fishing 15 km southeast off Kodiyakkarai near Nagapattinam district were allegedly assaulted with canes and ropes by Sri Lankan navy on Saturday. The fishermen alleged that the navymen took away their GPS device, a mobile phone and 10 kg of their catch before chasing them away.
Chellaiah (50), Aalamuthu (50), Kasipillai (50), Kalidasan (40), Kumar (38), Mahendran (33), Anbarasu (28), Kannadasan (25) Ravichandran (20) and Jegan (20) ventured into the sea in two mechanised boats on Friday evening from Kodiyakkarai coast.
The navy personnel warned the fishermen to stop fishing in Lankan waters, then got onto their boats and beat up Jegan, Ravichandran and Mahendran with bamboo sticks and ropes. After the incident, the fishermen returned to the shore.
In another incident, the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly damaged a vessel from Rameswaram. P Titicraj (34) of Thangachimadam, along with six others, had ventured into the seas from Thangachimadam in a mechanised boat owned by Praveen in the early hours of Saturday.
When they were engaged in fishing in the Indian waters near the International Maritime Border Line, Sri Lankan navy’s patrol vessel rammed their boat. The navy personnel then rounded up and attacked fishermen for poaching into the Lankan waters.
Titicraj, who was standing on the boat’s edge when the men were assaulted, slipped into the water during the attack, sources claimed, adding that the fellow fishermen rescued him after the former left the spot. Later, the damaged boat was towed by another boat and brought to the Indian shores. The injured was admitted in the Rameswaram GH.