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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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Fate of Indian fishermen unknown by Anton Nonis A joint search by the Sri Lanka Navy and Talaimannar police for eight Indian fishermen who went missing off Pesalai last Thursday, has been futile so far. Investigators believe that the men are still alive, but remain under the custody of some other force. Talaimannar police Sub Inspector, Thiagarajah said, they had received anonymous telephone calls on a couple of occasions, about spotting of strangers in the jungle area in Talaimannar. But these ended up blank, once the police arrived at such locations. It points to the fact that the fishermen, so far `deemed lost', might be in the hiding for fear of facing the repercussions, as they had been engaged in an illegal pursuit of poaching in the area. The theory whether the men may have swam across to India too has not been confirmed by the Fisheries Association in Rameshwaram in which the fishermen in question are said to be members. Whatever it is, police in Talaimannar had ensured they would look into all those places brought to their notice by informants, whether such information was real or otherwise. Meanwhile, Commodore Jayantha Perera of the Navy said, they had apprised Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) on the incident of the missing fishermen and sought SLMM's assistance in tracing the men. But, upto now nothing positive had been received from the SLMM. The Navy also speculate, the men might have been captured by the LTTE. The fate befell the fishermen while being engaged in fishing off Pesalai, aboard two trawlers last Thursday morning. Both crafts had been on fire at that time. While one sank, the other was ferried towards the shore, also badly damaged in the fire. |
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