Though the Sri Lankan government had conducted the postmortem on the four bodies and sent it to Ramanathapuram, the fishermen here have insisted that the government should order for a re-postmortem and the DMK would insist on the demand, said MP M. K. Kanimozhi here on Saturday.
The MP, who visited the families of four fishermen at their dwellings in the coastal hamlet and presented assistance from the party to the legal heirs, told them that a permanent solution to stop such atrocities against fishermen would be taken up by the DMK with the Centre.
On January 18, four fishermen went missing. Later, the Sri Lankan Navy personnel communicated that they had died. The four fishermen, identified as Mesiya, Nagaraj, Senthil Kumar and Samson Darwin, were killed under charges of violating the territorial limits, the fishermen association leader S. R. Sesu Raja alleged.
The fishermen delegation told the DMK MP that the Sri Lankan Navy personnel had been humiliating the fishermen under some pretext or the other. The killing of the four fishermen from Thangachimadam indicated that it was not to prevent the fishermen from entering into their territory but it looked like a pre-planned murder, they charged.
Even in countries like Pakistan where fishermen were held under some charges, they were punished as per the laws by the courts. “Though, Sri Lanka is described as a friendly neighbour, the actions of their Navy personnel shows them as enemies”, the fishermen leaders charged.
The DMK, she said, was aware of the issues and would stand with them. She agreed that retrieving Katchatheevu island would be a permanent solution and assured to take it up with the Central government on this issue.
“The fishermen are caught in a quagmire on one hand, they are fighting for their livelihood against all odds and on the other hand, they have to face the atrocities perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Navy against them”, she told reporters at Thangachimadam.
