Thirty-three-year-old fishermen from Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu were injured in a mid-sea firing by Sri Lankan Navy in the wee hours of Monday.
The injured fisherman has been identified as Kalaiselvan. Tamil Nadu fisheries department officials said Kalaiselvan and nine other fishermen set sail from Nagapattinam’s Keechankuppam fishing hamlet on July 28 in a mechanised boat.
While fishing around five nautical miles southeast off Kodiyakkarai coast, a fast interceptor vessel — said to be that of the Sri Lankan navy — chased them and opened fire, the local media reported.
“There are two bullet marks on the boat. The broken pieces from the body part of the fishing vessel must have injured the fisherman,” G Jayaraj, assistant director of the fisheries department, Nagapattinam, said. The coastal security group personnel of the Tamil Nadu police were investigating the incident.
Local sources say that the attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen are significantly increasing in recent times.
