V Mayilvaganan, TNN, Jan 13, 2011, 11.00am IST
PUDUKOTTAI: The Sri Lankan navy opened fire on a group of Tamil Nadu fishermen and killed a youth in mid-sea firing off Jegadapatnam coast in Pudukkottai in central Tamil Nadu on Wednesday night, said a senior fisheries department official.
The Lankan navy personnel opened indiscriminate fire and R Pandian, aged about 25, suffered a bullet injury in his chest and was killed on the spot, an assistant director in the state fisheries department, Jambunathan, told TOI. Pandian, a native of Chinnakudi village near Tarangampadi in Nagapattinam district put out to sea with three other fishermen -- C Baskaran (52), M Meyyappan (26) and M Manikandan (25) -- in a mechanized boat on Wednesday morning. They were preparing for the return trip when they encountered a Sri Lankan navy vessel late in the evening. The Navy personnel ordered the fishermen to jump into the sea.
Meyyappan and Manikandan jumped into the sea immediately while Pandian tried to remove his clothes, when the Lankan navy personnel opened fire. Pandian took the bullet in his chest and collapsed on the boat as the Lankan vessel left.
The fishermen claimed that they were well within the Indian side of the International Maritime Border Line. The incident has triggered a fresh round of tension in the fishing hamlets in the area. The issue figured in the Tamil Nadu assembly on Thursday morning.
Such encounters with Sri Lankan navy are frequent and several Tamil Nadu fishermen have been killed in the past. Earlier it was the civil war in the Island nation that ensured that the Lankan navy strictly monitored the borders to prevent movement of LTTE cadres across the international boundary line. But fishermen complain that the Lankan navy continued to harass them even after the war ended. Recently, they pleaded with the two governments to allow them to go beyond the international boundaries for better fish catch.