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“LTTE may have hijacked fishing vessel”

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Wednesday said it had made “representations” to India about the incident of two Indian trawlers being used to attack its Navy, taking cover behind a large cluster of Indian trawlers that were within its waters north of Talaimannar on February 4.

The Sri Lankan Navy said one of its patrol craft with a seven-member crew was destroyed in the firing. Of the seven, one survived and six others were missing. The survivor said men on board one of the boats that carried the attackers called for assistance claiming that their boat was disabled. “When our vessel approached the boats, they opened fire.”

A government statement here said the Indian authorities sought full information on the incident for making their own inquiries.

The Navy’s media spokesperson, Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake, said the LTTE “may have hijacked the Indian fishing vessel or were simply disguised as fishermen.” Over 200 to 300 Indian fishing trawlers enter the Sri Lankan waters a week despite the presence of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard on the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the two countries.

The Sri Lanka military on Wednesday claimed that it had destroyed 30 bunkers of the LTTE and killed 15 Tiger cadres in the north even as the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) said it bombed an LTTE ‘gathering point.’

A statement by the Defence Ministry said that the LTTE “resistance was neutralised” at the Nagarkovil Forward Defence Lines and the troops forced into terrorist defences and dismantled 30 odd bunkers.

Separately, SLAF fighter jets raided an ‘LTTE gathering point’ in Thiruwe Aru, one km northwest of Iranamdu Tank.

The military said that in another incident, three LTTE cadres were gunned down by army snipers deployed in Mannar defences.

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