Sri Lankan navy personnel continued their attacks on Tamil fishermen, thrashing 12 of them with iron rods and swords on Wednesday. Four of them had to be hospitalised, sources said.

The navy men claimed the fishermen were in Lankan waters.
The latest attack fuelled anger in Tamil Nadu, where protests against the Sri Lankan government’s “war crimes” against Tamils appeared to assume the dimensions of a state-wide movement.

A US-backed resolution against Lanka is expected to be voted on at the UNHCR on Thursday.

Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh: “India cannot maintain a pusillanimous equanimity in the face of such repeated, brazen and uncivilised assaults on innocent fishermen belonging to Tamil Nadu, who are also citizens of India.”

Hundreds of thousands of students across the state joined the largely spontaneous protests by non-political groups. Students of IIT-Madras and IT professionals from Tamil Nadu, other parts of India and even the US and Europe began joining the movement on social networking networks.