Issue of attacks on TN fishermen taken up with SL Navy: ICG

The Indian Coast Guard today said it has taken up with the Sri Lankan Navy officials the issue of alleged attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by Lankan Navy.

The Indian Coast Guard on Thursday said it has taken up with the Sri Lankan Navy officials the issue of alleged attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by Lankan Navy.

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"We have already taken up this issue (attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen) with the officials concerned in Sri Lankan Navy," Commander Coast Guard Region, ICG, IG A Rajasekhar, told reporters in Chennai.

Rajasekhar's statement comes at a time when four fishermen from Tamil Nadu were injured when Sri Lankan naval personnel allegedly attacked a group which was fishing off Katchathivu island on July 5.

Fisheries department officials said Sri Lankan naval personnel in patrol boats intercepted the fishermen off Katchathivu (an island ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974).

Refuting the recent reports of Sri Lankan Navy violating the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), Rajasekhar said, "No way the Sri Lankan Navy enters our waters. They will not even cross five miles in our coast."

Rajasekhar said the ICG had never harassed any Sri Lankan fishermen if they strayed into Indian waters.

"We do not harrass them (Lankan fishermen) if they come to our (Indian) territory," he said.

Rajasekhar disclosed that 47 boats with 250 Sri Lankan fishermen have been apprehended since January 2010.

"This region also undertook repartriation of 78 boats and 361 Sri Lankan fishermen to Sri Lanka," he added.