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Sri Lankan PM justifies shooting of Indian fishermen amid Sushma visit
Amid diplomatic moves to forge
closer ties, the festering fishermen's issue between India and Sri Lanka
on Saturday threatened to snowball into a major row with Sri Lankan
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe justifying his country's navy
shooting intruding Indian fishermen.
Wickremesinghe told a
television channel that his country's law has a provision to "shoot"
anyone trying to "break into my house" -- referring to Indian fishermen
intruding into his country's waters, as he met Indian External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj here on Saturday.
The Indian minister is
here to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bilateral
visit next week, the first by an Indian prime minister since 1987.
Indian
external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said that India
will take up the fishermen issue with Colombo during talks between
Sushma Swaraj and the Sri Lankan side.
"This is an ongoing
dialogue between India and Sri Lanka; the external affairs minister will
certainly take up this matter today (Saturday) both with her Sri Lankan
counterpart and with the Sri Lankan prime minister. We want to ensure
both India and Sri Lanka are able to work together," the spokesperson
said.
Sushma Swaraj also held delegation level talks with her
counterpart Mangala Samaraweera during which all bilateral issues were
discussed.
In an interview to Thanthi TV, a Chennai-based news
channel, Wickremesinghe said his government was willing to make a
"reasonable deal" with India with respect to fishing rights.
To a
question if shooting at intruding Indian fishermen can be justified,
Wickremesinghe said: "If someone tries to break into my house, I can
shoot. If he gets killed... Law allows me to do that... On the fishermen
issue, as far as I'm concerned, I have very very strong lines. This is
our waters... Fishermen of Jaffna should be allowed to fish. We stopped
them from fishing. That's why the Indian fishermen came in... they are
willing to have a deal... Let's have a reasonable deal.. But not at the
expense of the income of the northern fishermen...No..."
Wickremesinghe
continued: "Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in
our waters...? Stay on the Indian side... There will be no issue...No
one will shoot anyone else... You stay on the Indian side, let our
fishermen stay on the Sri Lankan side... Otherwise don't make
accusations of human rights violation by the navy. You came in there."
He
also took a pot shot at India for filing murder charges against two
Italian Marines over the killing of two Indian fishermen in 2012.
"...
Why do you all pick up the Italian sailors? You say you are friendly
with Italy, show that same magnanimity to Italy that you want us to
show."
To Thanti TV saying that the marines had killed two Indian
fishermen, he said: "Look... If you want us to show that magnanimity to
your fishermen, India should show the same magnanimity to Italian
sailors."
He also said that Indian fishermen could not be allowed to trawl the seas in his country's territorial waters.
His
comments came even as armed Sri Lankan fishermen allegedly abducted
seven Indian fishermen late on Wednesday, demanding a ransom from their
families, Xinhua reported on Friday.
The seven Indian fishermen later returned to Tamil Nadu, a leader said on Saturday in Rameswaram.
"Seven
fishermen were allegedly abducted by some armed Sri Lankan fishermen on
March 4. They were later released by their captors after confiscating
their catch, mobile phones and other equipment," G. Arul, a fishermen's
leader in Rameswaram town, told IANS on Saturday.
According to
the Sri Lankan media, the Indian Coast Guard has detained six Sri Lankan
fishermen on the charge of poaching in Indian waters, 128 nautical
miles off Nagapattinam coast on Thursday.
Senior Tamil journalist
R. Rajagopalan has said that Sushma Swaraj should issue a statement
condemning Ranil Wickremesinghe's "provocative" speech regarding the
Indian Tamil fishermen.