FILE: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (Reuters photo)
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has sparked a major controversy by suggesting that Indian fishermen could be shot if they intruded into the country's waters.
Alleging that Indian fishermen were taking away the livelihood of those from Northern Lanka, Mr Wickremesinghe told a Tamil news channel, Thanthi TV, "If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed... Law allows me to do that."
"As far as I'm concerned, I have very, very strong lines. This is our waters... Fishermen of Jaffna should be allowed to fish. We stopped them from fishing, that's why the Indian fishermen came in. They are willing to have a deal... Let's have a reasonable deal. But not at the expense of the income of the Northern fishermen... No." he said.
Asked about allegations that the Sri Lankan Navy had shot and killed around 600 Indian fishermen over the years, the Lankan PM said there had been no such incident recently with the last one being in 2011.
"Part of that earlier was during the time of (Lankan civil) war, they felt some of them were actually involved in supplying of arms," Mr Wickremesinghe said.
"As far as we are concerned, even today the Northern fishermen are shouting as to why the Navy isn't defending us... We have a job explaining to them, Look, these are territorial waters, but we still have to go and talk to India and sort it out," he said.
Mr Wickremesinghe also questioned the alleged illegal fishing by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters, saying, "Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in our waters? Stay on the Indian side... There will be no issue... No one will shoot anyone else," he said.
"You stay on the Indian side. Let our fishermen stay on the Sri Lankan side... Otherwise don't make accusations of human rights violation by the Navy. You came in there," he added.
There have been several cases of arrests and abductions of Indian fishermen in the last month.
As many as 86 Indian fishermen were arrested and their 10 fishing boats seized by the Sri Lanka Navy for allegedly poaching in the country's waters last month.