Two rescued, one missing as Indian fishermen allege Sri Lankan Navy sank boat

Chennai: The Sri Lankan Navy on Monday claimed that they rescued two Indian fishermen from a sinking fishing boat that was “poaching” in Sri Lankan waters across the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). They added the search and rescue operations were underway to find a third fisherman who was on-board the fishing boat.

The Lankan Navy maintains that while they were chasing away Indian fishing boats, a boat that was attempting to evade had collided with a Navy craft, which eventually led to the sinking of the Indian boat.

“As the said task being put into practice, one of the Indian fishing trawlers, with aggressive maneuvers, in resistance of chase away, was on an attempt to evade from the scene making it collided with SLN Craft in operation. In the process, it ultimately descended having lost its stability as well as due to the rough sea condition,” read the Lankan Navy statement on Monday’s incident.

However, Indian fishermen allege that the Sri Lankan Navy vessel had deliberately crashed into the Indian fishing boat, with the intention of sinking it. They are of the impression that the third person (Rajkiran), whom they say was steering the boat from within the wheelhouse was trapped and sank along with the boat. It is said that the three fishermen who belonged to Kottapattinam in Tamil Nadu’s Pudukottai district, were fishing in the areas adjoining the Delft Island in the Palk Strait, which lay between India and Sri Lanka. The two fishermen who were rescued and are in Sri Lankan custody were identified as Xavier and Sakunthran.

According to India’s National Traditional Fishermen Federation, this incident involving the Sri Lankan Navy is seen as deliberate retribution for another recent untoward incident, which involved an Indian boat. A few weeks back, a large Indian fishing trawler from Tamil Nadu had collided with and sunk a smaller Lankan fishing boat. While the Lankan boat was fully damaged and lost, the Lankan fishermen survived and returned to the shore. It is believed that, had the Indian Government or Tamil Nadu government taken some action against the errant Indian boat and offered compensation to the Lankan fishermen, things would have been amicably resolved.

The local fishermen also see an unfortunate similarity between Monday’s incident and one that took place in January this year. They allege that the Lankan Navy had rammed their vessels into the Indian boat, following which dead bodies of the four fishermen were returned, in January. The fishermen believe that holding talks between Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen would help resolve some of the misunderstandings that are based on the recent collision and alleged trespass.

In recent times, Northern Sri Lankan fishermen have been protesting against Indian boats that were venturing into their waters, carrying out alleged illegal fishing activity. They made attempts to pressure the Indian and Sri Lankan authorities to act against those involved in illegal fishing.