TN fishermen say Coast Guard fired at them, personnel refute charges

CHENNAI: The Indian Cost Guard on Tuesday denied firing on a fishing trawler after a fisherman lodged a complaint with the police in Ramanathapuram alleging that he and others came under fire from a patrol vessel in the high seas on Monday afternoon.

KP Arokiyadass who lodged the complaint and fellow fisherman S Johson showed bullets to television reporters in Ramanathapuram on Tuesday and alleged that ICG personnel on board a patrol vessel attacked them after they could not stop their trawler ‘Jehovah Jireh’ because their fishing nets had already been cast.

Since the boat kept moving, the coast guard personnel opened fire, the fishermen alleged in an interview to a private television channel.

The fishermen alleged that the coast guard personnel then boarded their trawler and beat them up and asked them to learn Hindi before leaving.

Fishermen’s associations have condemned the incident and demanded action against those ICG personnel allegedly involved in the firing.

But the Indian Coast Guard on Tuesday flatly denied that any of its personnel fired at any fishermen aboard the Jehovah Jireh.

“No fisherman was fired upon by any ICG ship in Palk Bay on Monday,” it said in a press statement issued in Chennai on Tuesday. KV LAKSHMANA