Chennai:
Asking the Centre to take a strong line and prevail upon the Sri Lankan Government to end "unprovoked" attacks and arrests of Indian fishermen, Tamil Nadu has said such "unabated" attacks "will not make for a congenial atmosphere" for proposed talks between representatives of fishing community of two sides next month.
Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that at a time when her government was taking a "conciliatory approach" to help facilitate talks between the fishermen of India and Sri Lanka, it was "unfortunate" that "instances of attack and abduction of our fishermen continue unabated."
"The continuance of such attacks and abductions will not make for a congenial atmosphere for any meaningful talks even at the level of fishermen associations of the two countries.
Hence, I would like to reiterate that the Government of India must take a strong line and prevail upon Sri Lankan Government to end such unprovoked attacks and arrests," she told Dr Singh in a letter dated December 30, which was released today.
The state government's proposal for talks between fishermen representatives from India and Sri Lanka in Chennai on January 20, next year was reportedly "agreeable" to Centre also, she said, adding, a formal confirmation was awaited from New Delhi.
Referring to the arrest of 40 fishermen from Puthukottai and Ramanathapuram districts on December 28 and 29 by the Lankan navy, she said such instances have sent shock waves across the fishermen community in the state.
The right of livelihood of Indian fishermen to fish in their traditional waters of the Palk Bay to which they have a 'historic claim' was being infringed upon repeatedly and effectively abrogated by Sri Lanka, Ms Jayalalithaaa said in her letter.
"This is caused in no small measure due to the Government of India having entered into an ill-advised agreement which ceded the islet of Katchatheevu, historically part of India's territory and indisputably an integral part of India," she said.
Despite several joint statements, Sri Lanka continued with "unabated, brutal, unprovoked attacks and instances of opening of fire on our innocent fishermen," she said, adding, India's "meek and weak" response had only emboldened that navy to act against the Indians.
The chief Minister recalled that she had asked Singh to summon Sri Lanka's envoy to India to register its "strongest disapproval" of such arrests and also to take up personally at the highest level to put an end to the "continued atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Navy by way of illegal arrest, detention of our innocent fishermen and impounding of their fishing boats."
She reiterated her earlier demand for Centre's intervention to ensure the release of over 200 fishermen already languishing in Sri Lankan jails besides retrieving their boats.