Six fishermen of coastal Nagapattinam district were allegedly assaulted mid-sea by a group of 12 persons suspected to be from Sri Lanka, when they were fishing east of Arcot Thuraion Wednesday night. Five of them were injured in the incident.
One of the injured fishermen Murugan, has been referred to a private hospital in Coimbatore for further treatment. Four other fishermen, identified as Chandru, Madhesh, Chinnathambi and Sivabalan were admitted to the Nagapattinam Government Hospital. One fisherman was not hospitalised.
Police sources said a group of six fishermen hailing from the coastal village Nambiar Nagar set sail on board a fibre boat on Wednesday afternoon. They were fishing about 22 nautical miles east of Arcot Thurai when they were apparently intercepted by three fibre boats with about 12 persons on board.
The Nagapattinam fishermen were allegedly assaulted by the other group reportedly with iron pipes and wooden logs.
Murugan was allegedly attacked with a sharp weapon in which he sustained injuries on three fingers. The group is believed to be from Sri Lanka although they purportedly spoke in Tamil, said the police attributing this to the version of the injured fishermen.
The group took away a GPS gadget, a battery and about 150 kg of fish from the boat of the Nagapattinam fishermen. The injured fishermen returned to shore in the wee hours on Thursday.
The Vedaranyam Marine police have registered a dacoity case.
