This ‘monster’ was out to destroy Ramasethu and ruin the fishermen’s life. He couldn’t succeed in the first so he is trying the second.
COLOMBO: The Tamil Nadu fishermen, whose rounding up by Jaffna fishermen and the subsequent arrest for fishing in Sri Lankan waters off Point Pedro and Maadakal had created a furore in India, had told their captors that DMK leader T R Baalu should be held responsible for their plight.“The fishermen said that they were forced to intrude into Lankan waters and indulge in destructive bottom trawling by the owners of the trawlers. And they alleged that most of the trawlers were owned by DMK leader T R Baalu,” said Rev Fr Ananda Kumar, the parish priest of Maadakal, who is working closely with the fishing community there.“The captured fishermen said they were paid on the basis of their catch. If the catch was poor, the trawler owners would pay them correspondingly less. Since the Indian side had little fish, they crossed over to the Sri Lankan side. And the trawler owners also urged them to do so,” the priest told Express on Tuesday.While being in Tamil Nadu, the fishermen could not blame Baalu openly, out of fear of retribution, he added. “The helpless fishermen wondered if anyone would bell the cat,” Fr Ananda Kumar said.
http://expressbuzz.com/topnews/seized-trawlers-of-tn-fishers-belong-to-baalu/250564.html
DMK behind abduction of TN fishermen: Priest
COLOMBO: The recent rounding up of 136 Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan waters off Point Pedro and Maadakal had not served as a deterrent to intrusions, according to Rev Fr Ananda Kumar, the parish priest of Maadakal, who is working closely with the fishing community there.”On Monday, for example, 50 trawlers were sighted off Maadakal itself,” he pointed out. The priest said he did not approve of Jaffna fishermen taking the law into their hands and abducting TN fishermen. “When they came to me saying that they had forced the TNfishers to come ashore, I castigated and asked them to promptly hand the captured men over to the police,” he said. Abductions politically instigated Asked if the Lankan navy had instigated or aided the Jaffna fishermen in their adventure, Fr Ananda Kumar said the navy had no part in it, but a powerful Jaffna political leader and the DMK had been behind the moves. He declined to name the Jaffna leader.”On the TN side, the incidents helped the DMK beat its political rivals and emerge as the champion of fishermen ahead of the State Assembly elections, and on the Jaffna side, they helped the political leader cosy up to the DMK government.”"This leader needs the help of the DMK government to face a long pending criminal case against him in TN.” “The fishermen on both sides had become pawns in the hands of politicians,” Fr Ananda Kumar said.
http://expressbuzz.com/topnews/DMK-behind-abduction-of-TN-fishermen-Priest/250506.html
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