4 TN fishermen injured as Sri Lankan naval ship rams into their boat
The fishermen on board were thrown into the water, leaving them struggling for life mid-sea and the boat subsequently capsized.
Visual of co-fishermen managed to rescue those fishermen who were stuck in the middle of the sea for an hour and brought them to the shore.
TIRUCHY: Four fishermen from Tamil Nadu were lucky to escape after a Sri Lankan naval vessel allegedly rammed their fishing boat causing it to capsize at mid-sea during the early hours of Wednesday.
The fishermen on board were thrown into the water, leaving them struggling for life mid-sea and the boat subsequently capsized.
The fishermen were identified as K Sakthivel (40), R Devaraj (32), S Karthikeyan (42) and C Sathish (36) all from Tsunami Colony at Serthur in Nagapattinam. They had ventured into the sea for fishing on Tuesday in a boat (IND TN 06 MO 1507) owned by M Dharman of the Tsunami Colony.
The injured fishermen were picked up from the sea and questioned for several hours by the Sri Lankan Naval sailors and later handed over to another Indian fishing boat that was fishing nearby.
Sakthivel, Karthikeyan, and Devaraj returned to Karaikal on Wednesday at around 3 am while Sathish stayed for a while to search for the missing equipment. Later he too returned to the shore along with the damaged boat that was pulled back by another boat owned by T Prakash. They were treated at the Nagapattinam GH.
The fishermen alleged that they lost fishing nets, fishing gear, GPS gadgets, mobile phones and cache valued at more than Rs 6 lakh in the incident
TFDC Chairperson N Gowthaman and officials from the Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare Department inspected the boat, met the fishermen at the hospital and consoled them.
The incident caused a flutter among the fisherfolk in the district and the Fishermen Panchayat have decided to organise a strike condemning the frequent attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy.