Four Indian fishermen sustained serious injuries when they were attacked by the Sri Lanka navy with “iron rods” near Katchatheevu yesterday. The Sri Lanka navy patrol had also collided with Indian fishing boats causing it irreparable damage. 

Nearly 300 Indian fishermen had left to fish on Sunday after seeking permission from the Rameshwaram fishing port. However, when they ventured out to sea, they were attacked by the Sri Lankan navy. The four fishermen have been admitted to government and private hospitals for treatment.  

The issue comes just days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's revival of a decades-old dispute surrounding Katchatheevu island.

“New facts reveal how Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu,” tweeted the Indian Premier. “This has angered every Indian and reaffirmed in people’s minds- we can’t ever trust Congress!”

India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar added fuel to the issue at a press conference, when he read out excerpts of the documents and said that Congress “simply did not care", claiming they saw the island as a “little rock”. He went on to detail how ceding the island led to the arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lanka, stating “in the last 20 years, 6,184 Indian fishermen have been detained by Sri Lanka”. “And in the same period, 1,175 fishing vessels – Indian fishing vessels – have been seized, detained, apprehended by the Sri Lankans.”

The latest incident is not the first time that attacks by the Sri Lankan navy have been reported. Earlier this year, in a different operation, the Sri Lanka navy seized one Indian trawler and apprehended 15 Indian fishermen poaching off the Kovilan Lighthouse in Karainagar. During this incident, one fisherman was admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital for treatment, following an assault by Indian troops. This year along Sri Lanka Nayv said it seized a total of 16 Indian poaching trawlers and 125 Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters in 2024 and subsequently handed them over to authorities for legal proceedings so far.

Tamil Nadu fishermen have reported instances of abuse, torture, and extrajudicial killings by Sri Lanka's Navy for years.

In February this year, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu M K Stalin wrote to Premier Modi seeking his intervention to release the Indian fishermen who were detained in Sri Lanka. “Indian fishermen were being harassed by unidentified persons while fishing in the Palk Strait and several others are being apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy,” he had said in his letter adding that 88 Indian fishermen were arrested, and 12 boats had been seized by Sri Lankan authorities.

At the time, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP T.R. Baalu told the Indian press that “he Sri Lankan Navy is showing an atrocious attitude and the Government of India is keeping a lukewarm position as far as this issue is concerned”.