Four Nagai fishermen injured after SL navy vessel hits their fishing boat

Nagapattinam: Four fishermen from Nagapattinam sustained injuries when their fibre boat capsized in the sea after a Sri Lankan navy vessel hit their boat on Tuesday evening. The injured fishermen were identified as K Sakthivel, 40, R Devaraj, 32, S Karthikeyan, 46, and C Sathish, 36, all hailing from Cherudhur fishing village in Nagapattinam. Sources said that while they were fishing five nautical miles southeast off Kodiyakarai, their boat was struck by a high-speed Sri Lankan navy vessel around 5pm on Tuesday. The boat overturned in the middle of the sea. Despite their injuries, they managed to cling to the capsized boat. Subsequently, the Sri Lankan navy personnel threatened them and left. The distressed fishermen remained stranded in the sea for an hour. Other fishermen, who were returning from fishing, rescued the four and brought them ashore to Cherudhur on Wednesday. They also towed the overturned boat back to the shore. Sources said that approximately 600kg of nets, GPS devices, walkie-talkies, four cell phones, and fish worth 6 lakh were lost in the sea during the incident. The fishermen received medical attention for their internal injuries at the govt headquarters hospital in Nagapattinam. The collision has instilled fear and shock among the fishing community in Tamil Nadu. Fishermen from Nagapattinam and Cherudhur, who have been repeatedly affected by attacks from Sri Lankans, have appealed to the authorities to take measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future. The fishing community has called for increased patrolling by the Indian Coast Guard in international waters and the provision of transformer equipment to fibre boat fishermen to prevent them from inadvertently crossing boundaries.