TN fishermen allege robbery by Sri Lankans on high seas

Chennai, March 18 (IANS) Fishermen from Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam on Thursday alleged that they were assaulted and robbed on the high seas by a group of Sri Lankans.Nagaraju, Murthy and Ravichandran, said they went fishing from Vellappalllam in Nagappatanam on Monday late night.Murthy, talking to IANS over telephone, said: "We were intercepted at around 15 nautical miles from international waters by a group of armed men in a fiberglass boat. We could understand that they were Sri Lankans."The fishermen alleged that they were robbed off their outboard engine, as also their communication equipment, and they were physically assaulted. The assailants later escaped and the fishermen had to row back and reached Nagapattinam after 12 hours.Vedrayanam Marine police station officer was not available for comment even after repeated attempts to contact him.
--IANS aal/vd