Attacks on fishermen: Jaya seeks stronger steps from Centre

Chennai, Feb 17 (PTI) AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa todaydemanded stronger steps from the Centre on the issue ofattacks on Indian fishermen allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy anddemanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talk to Sri LankanPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa and warn him of "consequences" ifattacks recurred.

"Mere despatching of letters from Chennai to Delhi orsending messengers from Delhi to Colombo will not be of anyuse. The sequence of events clearly shows that the UPAgovernment does not care about the letters Chief Minister MKarunanidhi keeps despatching. And the Sri Lankan governmentdoes not care about India''s warning," she said.

"Stronger steps are required. As a first step, sendingIndia''s Sukhoi aircraft for display at the 16th anniversary ofthe Sri Lankan Air Fair should be stopped. The Katchatheevuagreement has to be abrogated and the island brought back intothe Indian map to bring India''s territorial waters to itsoriginal distance," she said in a statement here.

She demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pickup the phone and speak to Rajapaksa and tell him that "if theatrocities against Indian fishermen are not stopped forthwith,Sri Lanka will have to face the consequences".

She alleged that the issue of attacks on fishermen wasbeing "trivialised", adding, just after a week of Indiaconveying its concerns to Sri Lanka over the attacks, 136Tamil Nadu fishermen had been detained in the island nation.

Taking a dig at Karunanidhi''s daughter and Rajya SabhaMP Kanimozhi for courting arrest on Wednesday on the issue,the former chief minister asked what she was doing all thistime when "killings" were happening.