Lanka should remove defence system in Palk strait: MDMK

CHENNAI: MDMK leader Vaiko on Friday demanded that the Centre ask the Sri Lanka government to remove the underwater defence system set up across the Palk strait on the International Maritime Boundary Line.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a copy of which was made available to the media, Vaiko said the system would damage and destroy the fishing boats of Indian fishermen.

He said the Sri Lankan navy had communicated to the Indian Navy to inform Tamil Nadu fishermen not to venture out for fishing between Kachatheevu and Neduntheeve in the Palk strait, as mines had been placed.

"This high-handed action of Sri Lanka government is a naked aggression into the domain of our sovereign rights in International waters," he said.

India ceded Kachatheevu to Sri Lanka, which itself was "wrong and unjustifiable", he said, adding when the island was given to Sri Lanka as per an agreement, Indian fishermen were given the fishing rights there.

"But, like a bolt from the blue, the Sri Lanka government has dared to set up an underwater defence system, with malicious aim to curtail the rights of Indian fishermen. There is a sinister design behind this move to threaten and prevent the suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka to reach Tamil Nadu as refugees," he said.

If the Sri Lanka government refused to remove the system, India should take steps to nullify the Kachatheevu agreement, he said.

Source: Times of India