Sri Lankan Navy never attacked Indian fishermen – Northern fisher Assns

by P. Krishnaswamy

A cross-section of representatives of Northern Fishermen’s Associations refuted the recent claims of their Indian counterparts that the Sri Lankan Navy had attacked them on the high seas.

The Indian fishermen come for poaching in their thousands in large trawlers. They resort to bottom trawler fishing to reap huge harvests but thereby destroy fish life.

None among the Northern fishermen has so far reported any incidents where Indian fishermen had been attacked by the Navy in Sri Lankan or Indian territorial waters, they said.

To the best of their knowledge, the Sri Lankan Navy only apprehends the poachers and seize their vessels, they said. The recent Indian fishermen’s protests against the purported attacks on them by the Sri Lankan Navy are politically oriented theatrics and not based on facts, S. Thavaratnam, President, Union of the Northern Fishermen’s Societies which has 118 fishermen’s societies told the Sunday Observer.

Representatives of other fishermen’s societies of the North also confirmed Thavaratnam’s statement.

They include Mariadas Logu, President of St. Mary’s Fishermen’s Society in Arippu in Mannar, Gregory Shankar, President, Panamkattikottu Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, Mannar, Kandasamy Rajendran, President Ambal Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, Karainagar, Jaffna, J. Sagayaraja, President, Gurunagar Fishermen’s Development Cooperative Society, Jaffna and K. Kulasingham, President Alaimagal Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, Salipuram, Jaffna.

Over 100,000 fisher families of the Northern province are facing a threat to their livelihood due to the two-decade poaching by Indian fishermen.

In the event the Tamil leaders are sincerely interested in the welfare of the Northern Tamils, they should get the fishermen to stop poaching instead of raising it as a national political issue, the Northern fishermen’s representatives said.