Indian fisherman dies in collision between Lankan vessel, Indian fishing boat

An Indian fisherman was killed and another went missing following a collision on Thursday morning, 1 August, between a Sri Lankan naval vessel and an Indian fishing boat allegedly poaching in the island nation's territorial waters, the Navy said in Colombo.

The incident happened off the coast to the West of the Delft islet in Jaffna, Navy spokesman captain Gayan Wickremasuriya said.

“The Navy was trying to arrest or to make them flee. But they moved aggressively, causing a collision with the Naval craft,” he said.

He claimed that the Indian trawler, carrying four fishermen, capsized due to aggressive manoeuvres and rough sea conditions.

The Indian trawler was toppled and sunk when the four fishermen jumped to the sea to avoid being arrested, Wickremasuriya said.

One fisherman is missing and the Navy is conducting a search operation to locate him. One of the rescued fishermen was admitted to the Punkuduthivu Hospital but succumbed to his injuries.

The other two remain in Naval custody. The magisterial inquiry on the dead would be held in Jaffna on Friday, the Naval spokesman said.

In New Delhi, the Sri Lankan acting high commissioner was called to the Ministry of External Affairs and a strong protest was registered over the incident.

Meanwhile, the Indian Indian High Commission in Colombo and the Indian Consulate in Jaffna in cooperation with the Sri Lankan government authorities secured the release of 20 Indian fishermen.

"DHC @DrSatyanjal and other officials met the fishermen today, ascertained their well-being and assured their repatriation within a day," the High Commission here posted on X along with some photographs of the meeting.

The fishermen issue is a contentious one in the ties between India and Sri Lanka, with Lankan Navy personnel even firing at Indian fishermen in the Palk Strait and seizing their boats in several alleged incidents of illegally entering Sri Lankan territorial waters.

On 25 June, a senior sailor from the Sri Lanka Navy Special Boat Squadron died in an incident blamed on “the aggressive manoeuvres of an Indian trawler, resisting its seizure,” the Sri Lankan Navy said.

The Palk Strait, a narrow strip of water separating Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing ground for fishermen from both countries.

Fishermen from both countries are arrested frequently for inadvertently trespassing into each other’s waters.