As anger swept through the fishing hamlets in Rameswaram after the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly shot dead a 21-year-old fisherman, K. Britjo, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to summon the Sri Lankan High Commissioner and convey the “strong feelings” of the Central and State governments over the incident.
The CM said it was a “cold blooded, inhuman, horrific and illegal barbaric killing of a young Indian fisherman from Tamil Nadu” and despatched Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar to meet the family members of the deceased and hand over a solatium of ₹5 lakh.
Until late on Tuesday night, Britjo’s family members and the other fisher folk refused to accept the body and launched an agitation urging the Centre to find a lasting solution.
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Britjo was one of the six fishermen on board a mechanised boat fishing on the high seas between Katchatheevu and Danushkodi on Monday night when the Sri Lankan Navy allegedly opened fire at them. He was hit by a bullet in his throat, while others escaped by lying in the bottom of the boat, fishermen leaders said.
Finding Britjo profusely bleeding, fishermen rushed back to the shore in a bid to provide him medical assistance but he succumbed to the injury in mid-sea. They brought the body ashore half past midnight. After post-mortem at the government hospital in Rameswaram, doctors removed a bullet embedded in his neck and the type of weapon used was being assessed, police said.
Sarone (37), another fisherman who suffered injuries in his hand, was admitted to the government headquarters hospital in Ramanathapuram.
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Doctors and police said he had not suffered any bullet injury and it appeared he had bruised his hand on the fishing rope. The six had set out for ‘night fishing’ on Monday evening and it was around 10 p.m. when they were allegedly shot.
Meanwhile, fishermen leaders, after an emergency meeting in Rameswaram, decided not to accept the body till the Centre and Sri Lankan government gave an explanation for the loss of life and came out with a lasting solution to the more than three-decade problem.
District Collector S. Natarajan and Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan after visiting the mortuary, assured the fishermen leaders that the government would take necessary action and urged them to accept the body.
The leaders, however, said they would not accept it till the Centre came out with a solution to protect their livelihood and gave an assurance that such an incident would not recur.
“We will continue the peaceful agitation till we get satisfactory response from the governments,” P. Sesu Raja, a mechanised boat fishermen leader said. He urged the general public and student community, who fought for jallikattu, to express their solidarity with them.
Besides family members of the deceased, tens of hundreds of fishermen gathered in front of the Thangachimadam church.
( With inputs from Dennis S Jesudasan )