Attacks on Indian fishermen:

Central Govt refutes Tamil Nadu claims

The Central Government of India has refuted renewed claims by the Tamil Nadu Government that Indian fishermen have been attacked by the Sri Lanka Navy.

India's Additional Solicitor General M. Ravindran made this statement on behalf of the centre during the hearing of an ongoing court case in Tamil Nadu on the alleged attacks against Indian fishermen. Ravindran contended that there was no way the Sri Lankan Navy could have entered the Indian waters as such movement by their warships would amount to waging a war. He said that the attacks, if any, on the Indian fishermen could have taken place only in the Sri Lankan waters as it was none other than the Tamil-speaking fishermen of Sri Lanka who were opposed to the Indian fishermen exploiting the marine wealth in the island nation's territory.

"The marine wealth in the Indian waters had been overexploited over the years, whereas it was not the case with the Sri Lankan waters as those fishermen could not fish for years during LTTE terror. "It is only now, that the Sri Lankan fishermen could fish freely in their waters and there is a clash between the two sides who enter their waters and use banned fishing methods and equipment such as bottom trawling and mono filament nets to catch fish," he said. He was responding to allegations raised by the Tamil Nadu State government that Indian fishermen were being intimidated even when they fished in Indian territorial waters.

Advocate General A. Navaneethakrishnan made submissions before a Division Bench, comprising Justice P.P.S. Janarthana Raja and Justice M. Vijayaraghavan, during the hearing of public interest litigation petitions filed last year seeking the protection of fishermen.

According to a report by the Director of Fisheries to the Fisheries Secretary on March 22, a number of complaints had been lodged by the Tamil fishermen even after an interim order had been passed by the court in October directing the Centre to provide additional enforcements along the IMBL.