The never-ending spate of attacks by the Sri Lankan navy on fishermen from Karaikal, Nagapattinam and Pudukottai districts have gone up. Another eight fishermen of Pudukottai district were reportedly attacked by the Sri Lankan navy personnel during the early hours of Sunday, while they were fishing inside the Indian maritime boundary near Jegathapattinam coast.
Sources said around 350 mechanised boats and country boats ventured into the sea from Jegathapatinam coast early on Saturday morning.
Around eight fishermen in two boats were fishing around 15 nautical miles east of Jegathapattinam during the wee hours of Sunday, when the Sri Lankan navy personnel arrived at the spot. The navy personnel assaulted the fishermen with wooden logs and steel pipes and tore the fishing nets.
They also seized the catch and fled the scene along with the food and mobile phones of the fishermen.
They also threatened the fishermen that they would be shot, if they ever came there again for fishing.
After the navy personnel left, the injured fishermen managed to returned to Jegathapatinam shore on Sunday noon. They were immediately rushed to the government hospital at Manamelkudi for treatment.
The victims were identified as Arul Selvan (28), Dhanabal (58), Ramu (20) and Manibalan (18) from one of the boats. In the second boat, Vadivazhagan (38) , Sathish (26) Krishnan (25) and Sakthivel (19) all hailing from Jegathapatinam, were injured.
It may be recalled that during the wee hours of Saturday, seven fishermen from Karaikal suffered a mid-sea attack by the Sri Lankan navy.
All the Seven were seriously injured, and undergoing treatment at the Karaikal government hospital.
Besides two of them suffered cut injuries in their arms and faces, their catch, nets and mobile phones were seized.
In a similar incident that happened on Friday, 46 fishermen of Nagapattinam were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard.