NAGAPATTINAM: Two fishermen groups from Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam districts comprising four members each were the latest to come under attack allegedly from Sri Lankan assailants near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) as they were assaulted and robbed of their equipment in separate incidents at mid-sea in the early hours of Saturday. Three of the injured fishermen are undergoing treatment at Vedaranyam Government General Hospital.
In one incident, a group of fishermen led by boat owner V Senthilkumar of Puthupettai in Mayiladuthurai district that was camping at Kodiyakarai in Nagapattinam district over the past few days put out to sea on Friday afternoon. They were fishing around 20 nautical miles southeast of Kodiyakarai when they came under attack. “Around 4 am, a group of three in a boat arrived, spoke to us in Tamil and demanded our belongings. Two of them assaulted us brutally with clubs. They took our equipment like GPS, battery, mobilephones and torchlight,” Senthilkumar said. After the fishermen returned to Kodiyakarai, Senthilkumar and his brother Sivakumar were hospitalised.
In the other incident, a four-member group from Nagapattinam led by B Chidambaram put out to sea, also in a motorised boat, from Vanavanmahadevi around the same time. When the group was fishing around 15 nautical miles off Koradacheri they, too, were assaulted by three assailants. The gang then escaped with their equipment, a net weighing around 200 kilograms and their fish catch of 60 kilograms, the fishermen who returned to safety on Saturday morning said. An injured Chidambaram was hospitalised.
Based on a complaint from the fishermen groups, the Vedaranyam Marine Police registered separate cases. Fisher representatives from the coastal delta region condemned the assault and demanded the Union government to act.