Attack on fisherman: TN BJP chief seeks govt arbitration in Lanka

K Annamalai, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu, asked S Jaishankar, the minister of foreign affairs, for help on Thursday regarding the incident on February 14 in which six fishermen from the fishing village of Nambiar Nagar in the state’s Nagapattinam were allegedly robbed and attacked with sharp knives by Sri Lankan pirates. In his letter to the Foreign Minister, the Tamil Nadu BJP chief said, “Thiru Murugan and six other fishermen from Nagapattinam were attacked mercilessly by a few people travelling in four Sri Lankan boats.” “Thiru Murugan’s fingers were chopped, and the belongings of these fishermen, worth Rs. 5 lakh, were robbed by those culprits.” He further urged Jaishankar’s intervention in the matter and stated that the Sri Lankan government needs to be nudged to identify the people involved in the aforesaid incident.
Seeking punishment for the ones involved in the act, he also asked for the retrieval of the fishermen’s belongings from the possession of the accused persons. The incident occurred on Tuesday (February 14), when six fishermen — Thiru Murugan, Chinnathambi, Chandru, Madesh, Sivapalan, and Akash [all from Nagapattinam’s Nambiar Nagar fishing village] — were fishing in a fibre boat near the Indian border southeast of Kodiakkara when several Sri Lankan pirates travelling at high speed in four boats jumped in the victim’s boat and attacked them with knives. It has been alleged that the sea pirates cut off three fingers from Murugan’s left hand.
Three fingers of Tamil Nadu fisherman Murugan’s left hand were cut off in a murderous attack by Sri Lankan pirates, who attacked other fishermen with swords, iron rods, and shackles.