TN fishermen attacked by Lankan Naval personnel

Rameswaram, March 3: Large number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu were today attacked allegedly by Sri Lankan Naval personnel with stones and bottles while fishing off Katchatheevu, causing damage to some boats, officials said.

The fishermen from here, Mandapam and other coastal areas of Ramanathapuram and Nagapattinam districts were fishing in about 1,400 boats near Kathchatheevu early this morning when the Lankan naval who came in a ship and a small boat allegedly attacked them, they said.

They allegedly pelted stones and other missiles, including bottles. They also snapped the fishing net of ten boats, Nagapattinam Assistant Director of Fisheries Gunasekaran said.

The fishermen said most of them could not fish in view of the continuous stone pelting by the Sri Lankan Naval personnel. Some of the boats from Nagapattinam were steel bodied and they could manage to fish, he said. Kathchatheevu is an islet ceded by India to Sri Lanka under an agreement in the 1970s.

PTI