Fishermen hold up nets that they say were slashed by a Sri Lankan gang which attacked them.
About a 100 fishermen from Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam District have alleged that they were attacked and looted by an unidentified armed gang from Sri Lanka while fishing off the Kodiakarai coast on Thursday.
They have claimed that the gang also looted their GPS equipment and looted fish and nets worth Rs 70 lakh from 33 boats. Murugan, a fisherman from Serthur Village, says, "This happened very much in Indian waters. They had sickles pointing at us and we had no option but to let them take away whatever they wanted."
An official of the district administration said nobody had been injured in the incident and that the state government had been informed.
"We have received information on this. We suspect either Lankan fishermen or any members from the Lankan navy to be behind this," said a senior officer of the Tamil Nadu Coastal Security Group, a wing of the police department.
Fishermen in Nagapattinam have not ventured into the sea today in protest. They have asked the Tamil Nadu government to provide them compensation and improved security.