By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa Saturday said attacks on Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy should be viewed as a provocation and aggression against India.
According to a official statement here, Jayalalithaa told Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai: “The incidents of apprehension and assault of the fishermen belonging to Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan Navy should be viewed not as an assault on Tamil fishermen but as an assault on Indian citizens and should be viewed as an act of provocation and aggression against India by Sri Lanka, similar to firing across the borders of India by neighbours such as Pakistan.”
Mathai had called on Jayalalithaa ahead of his three day official visit to Sri Lanka Saturday.
The chief minister also told Mathai that Indian fishermen apprehend that it is the Sri Lankan naval personnel in the guise of the island nation’s fishermen who threaten them.
Jayalalithaa emphasized that Mathai should take up this matter with the Sri Lankan government during his visit to Colombo.
She also said that the Sri Lankan Tamils living in the camps should be resettled in their original places and that this should also be taken up with the Sri Lankan president and the government.