New Delhi, April 20: Terming as “unfortunate” the killing of its four fishermen in Sri Lankan waters, India today said violence should not be used against them and any one found transgressing should be reported to New Delhi.
“We have been in touch with the Sri Lankan government over last few months. We even had the meeting of Joint Working Group (JWG) on fisheries…Under no circumstances violence should be a method of dealing with these fishermen,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said today.
She was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a book release function by former Indian ambassador to Sri Lanka Lakhan Mehrotra.
“Its very unfortunate that four fishermen have lost their lives. Post mortem report from Jaffna is awaited, as one body was washed away to Jaffna. I spoke to the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu this afternoon to see if we have more details.”
Stating that more information is awaited from the state government, Rao said, “We are still not able to establish the cause as how it happened. There is insufficient information at this moment.”
India and Sri Lanka set up a JWG in February to deal with the issue of Sri Lankan Navy opening fire against Indian Fishermen.
So far no consensus have been reached by the Group but the recent killing by the Sri Lankan navy has resurfaced the issue.
“We have been in touch with the Sri Lankan government over the last few months. Our emphasis has always been that we do not want violence of any nature against our fishermen. If they are found fishing in their waters, they must let us know, apprehend the fishermen and turn them over to us,” Rao said.
She added that no date has been decided for further meeting of the Group.
——–PTI