Two Araly fishermen found murdered, SLN complicity suspected

[TamilNet, Monday, 29 May 2006, 14:28 GMT]
Two fishermen who went to fish in Araly West seas in Valigamam were found murdered, and their bodies recovered from shrub jungles close to the Araly coast Monday morning, sources from Jaffna said. Residents of Araly allege complicity of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) soldiers in the murder of the two fishermen, according to sources.

Nagarajah Selvarajah and Nadarajah Nageswaran, both married and estimated to be between ages of 35-40, went fishing in shallow waters of Kottaikadu in Araly West Sunday evening. Relatives of the fishermen, went in search of them when both failed to return Monday morning.

The relatives discovered the bodies in Kottaikadu coastal shrub jungles and informed the Vaddukoddai police, sources said.

Arrangements are being made to transport the bodies to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for postmortem examinations.

Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has previously warned fishermen to avoid fishing in these areas. The murder of fishermen, occuring amidst increasing incidents of harassment of the local residents by the SLN soldiers, have created panic and fear among the fisher folks in Araly West, sources said.