After meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Tamil-majority region in Sri Lanka CV Wigneswaran hit out at Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe for his controversial comment on shooting trespassing Indian fishermen.
“That is not the way for a head of government to say to a friendly country. As far as the fishermen are concerned, all deep sea trawlers must be sent to Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea,” Wigneswaran told CNN-IBN channel.
“The solution is to prohibit trawlers in the Palk Strait Area and have a Palk Strait management committee and they should be in a position to see that none of these things are happening and that they go to deep sea,” he added.
A week ahead of Narendra Modi’s Sri Lanka visit the island country’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickramesinghe had kicked up a storm, saying Indian fishermen will be shot at if they violate the maritime border.
“If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in our waters? Stay on the Indian side. There will be no issue,” Wickramesinghe had said.
Defending the action of Lankan Navy which shot at Tamil Nadu fishermen who had strayed into the Lankan maritime zone, Wickramesinghe said that Indian fishermen should stay on their side.
India’s MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin had said, “We hope we can work together in a peaceful and diplomatic manner on this issue. We intend to work with our Sri Lankan interlocutors to ensure that both countries are able to work together. The issue has been discussed on several occasions in the past. It is a humanitarian issue, an emotive issue and an issue of livelihood.”
2015 – newkerala.com