COLOMBO/MANDAPAM It was a calm October night over Sri Lanka’s northern seas, the silence broken only by the sound of a rapidly approaching motorboat from India. In Kalpitiya, a town further down the island’s western coast, it rendezvoused with a truck waiting on the beach. Also waiting there was a Navy patrol team, which […]
The mortal remains of an Indian fisherman from Tamil Nadu, who went missing at sea on Monday, were retrieved on Wednesday noon. The boat he was on-board had collided with a Sri Lankan vessel in the Palk Strait, the waters between India and Sri Lanka.
Two other Indian fishermen who were on the same fishing boat (now sunken) are in Lankan custody since Monday. The two fishermen and the mortal remains of the third fisherman are expected to be repatriated by Wednesday night.
The Lankan Navy maintains that while they were chasing away Indian fishing boats, a boat that was attempting to evade had collided with a Navy craft, which eventually led to the sinking of the Indian boat.