Chennai: Voicing concern over frequent attacks
and harassment of Tamil Nadu fishermen allegedly by Sri Lankan
Navy, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has told Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh that it should be viewed as "an act of
provocation and aggression" against India.
In a strongly-worded letter to Singh, she said the attacks
should be treated as a national issue and not an "isolated
problem of Tamil Nadu alone".
Her letter to the Prime Minister on Monday came days after she
conveyed similar strong sentiments to Foreign Secretary Ranjan
Mathai when he called on her here ahead of his three-day visit
to Lanka from October 8.
Seeking the Prime Minister`s intervention to convey India`s
serious objection to Colombo, she emphasised that the
harassment of Tamil Nadu fishermen "should be viewed as an act
of provocation and aggression against India by Sri Lanka,
similar to acts of firing across the borders of India by
neighbours such as Pakistan and China".
Recalling Mathai`s visit, she said it was "distressing" to
note even before Mathai reached Colombo, the "Sri Lankan Navy
again chased away our fishermen in the sea by firing in the
air, off Mandapam coast of Ramanathapuram district".
"I brought the various incidents of attacks and harassment
to his (Mathai`s) notice and requested him to take up the
above issues with the government of Sri Lanka who, on the one
hand were participating in various Indo-Sri Lanka meetings in
order to resolve the fishermen’s problems and on the other
were resorting to violence against our fishermen," she said.
PTI
