Post-mortem of four fishermen should be done by our doctors, says Kanimozhi

The DMK MP said she would demand a repeat post-mortem on the bodies of the four fishermen who had died, and whose bodies were subsequently sent back to India from Sri Lanka

DMK women’s wing leader and Thoothukudi MP M.K. Kanimozhi with the families of fishermen who died

Though the Sri Lankan government had conducted the post-mortem on the four bodies of the fishermen who died and sent them to Ramanathapuram, the fishermen here are insisting that the government order a repeat post-mortem here, and the DMK will insist on this demand, said DMK MP M.K. Kanimozhi here on Saturday.

The MP, who visited the families of the 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 highest authority at the Centre.

On January 18, four fishermen had gone missing while out at sea. Later, 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 territorial waters, a 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 this was not to prevent the fishermen from entering into their territory -- 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. When Sri Lanka was described as a friendly neighbour, the actions of the Navy personnel showed 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 said she would take it up with the Central government.

The fishermen were in a quagmire as on the one hand, they were fighting for their livelihood against all odds and on the other side, the Lankan Navy indulged in violence against them, she told reporters at Thangachimadam. She reiterated that the DMK would seek a repeat post-mortem to be done on the bodies of the fishermen, likely to arrive here on Saturday night.