Stop Sri Lankan assaults on Tamil Nadu fishermen: Jayalalitha to Indian PM

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 10 July 2013, 23:05 GMT]
In a stern letter condemning India’s “stoic and apathetic silence” on the assaults on Tamil Nadu fishermen by the SL Navy on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha, addressing the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, urged him to impress upon Sri Lanka “to stop these continuing unprovoked assaults upon innocent Indian fishermen on the high seas by the Sri Lankan Navy." The letter was sent in the wake of the arrest of 21 Tamil Nadu fishermen by the SL Navy on 6 July, which Ms. Jayalalitha termed a "high-handed and illegal abduction." The AIADMK leader further called on the Indian Prime Minister to summon the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in New Delhi and to advice him to stop such assaults.

"These rapacious onslaughts of the Sri Lankan Navy upon innocent and unarmed Indian fishermen are perpetrated with a view to intimidating and browbeating them to prevent them from venturing out to the fishing waters in the vicinity of Katchatheevu (ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974), which my Government has always claimed to be a part of the traditional fishing areas of Indian fishermen," Jayalalitha said in her letter.

"Such unprovoked and violent acts of the Sri Lankan Navy unfortunately remain uncountered by the Government of India. This will only exacerbate the situation and create more unrest amongst the fishermen community of Tamil Nadu," she further added.

Calling on the Prime Minister to summon Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner, she wrote that Manmohan Singh should strongly advise the Sri Lankan Government through the diplomat “to stop these continuing unprovoked assaults upon innocent Indian fishermen on the high seas by Sri Lankan Navy”.