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Indian navy chief clears Lankan navy of TN fisherman’s killing
Despite sustained efforts by Dravidian political parties and chauvinist groups in Tamil Nadu to incriminate the Sri Lanka navy for alleged attacks on its fishermen, the top commander of the Indian navy has given a clean bill to the island nation’s navy.
Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of Naval Staff, has said that fishermen from Tamil Nadu trespass into Sri Lankan waters when fishing. “Our fishermen have been crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line, going and fishing in Sri Lankan waters,” said the navy chief speaking to reporters at the Indian Naval Station Rajali, near Chennai on Wednesday.
This is the first official reaction from the Indian navy since a fisherman from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu was shot dead on the Sri Lankan side of the IMBL recently. Though the provincial government in Tamil Nadu had alleged that the fisherman, who was fishing in the traditional waters, was killed by the Sri Lankan Navy, the Indian Navy and Coast Guard had maintained silence on the issue.
The admiral said the Indian Navy’s Tu-142 M long range maritime patrol aircraft were patrolling the area to ensure that no untoward incidents occurred in the region. Since then the Soviet built Tu-142 M have been replaced with P-80 Boeing LRMP aircraft. The Indian minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj expressed sorrow over the incident. The Indian Navy commander’s statement is as good as a charge sheet against the fishermen from Tamil Nadu who do not waste a chance to poach a good quantity of marine wealth from the Sri Lankan side of the maritime boundary.
Tamil Nadu fishermen have been poaching continuously not only from Sri Lankan waters but from the exclusive zones earmarked for fishermen from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh by their respective coastal regions. Instances of the fishermen from Tamil Nadu getting into fisticuffs with their counterparts from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have become routine.
The British navy recently took into custody a group of 32 fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Kerala who had intruded into the territorial waters of Diego Garcia, a former US Naval station in the Indian Ocean, which has since been handed over to the British navy. The fishermen have been asked to pay a fine of sterling pounds 5909 by the British Indian Ocean Territory authorities.
The fishermen were arrested on February 28, and nine tonnes of fish caught from each of their boats were destroyed. BIOT court registered cases against them on charges of poaching illegally in BIOT waters. They were produced before a BIOT court on 10 March.