Ramadoss seeks arrest of Lankan Navy personnel who opened fire on Indian fishermen

Chennai, Aug 2 Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader and former Union minister Anbumani Ramadoss has demanded the arrest of Sri Lankan Navy personnel who opened fire on Indian fishermen.

The PMK leader said in a statement on Monday that in the firing on Sunday night, an Indian fisherman, Kalaiselvan, was injured.

He said that fishermen from Akkaraipettai in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu were fishing in the Bay of Bengal, five nautical miles southeast off Kodiyakarai coast, on Sunday night when Lankan Navy personnel fired indiscriminately on them.

Ramadoss said that there has been an increase in the attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, adding that this was the seventh attack on Indian fishermen in the past two months.

The former minister said that Sri Lankan Navy is continuously attacking Indian fishermen as both the Central and state governments are not objecting to these attacks.

He also said that these attacks have caused huge losses to the Indian fishermen, including damage to boats and fishing nets.

He said that attacking Indian fishermen is a crime and that there was an agreement between India and Sri Lanka against such firings.

He also said that the Indian Coast Guard does not attack Sri Lankan fishermen, who accidentally venture into Indian waters, and instead arrests them and treats them with dignity.

The senior PMK leader said that the Sri Lankan Navy personnel who fired on the Indian fishermen should not be allowed to get away, adding that they should be arrested like the Italian mariners who were arrested after firing and killing fishermen across the Kerala coast.

Ramadoss also said that the Ministry of External Affairs should not to remain a mute spectator over the firing incident, and it should summon the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India and strongly reprimand him on the treatment meted out by the Sri Lankan Navy personnel towards Indian fishermen.