Karunanidhi urges Centre to take up with Lankan fisherman killing

Expressing concern over the killing of Tamil Nadu fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, chief minister M Karunanidhi today urged the Centre to take up the matter with Colombo and punish the guilty.

The chief minister discussed the matter with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee during the latter's visit to his residence here, and recalled the latest incident last night, where a fisherman was killed after the Lankan Navy allegedly tied a rope around his neck and threw him into sea.

"The chief minister pointed out the recurrence of such incidents to Mukherjee and asked him to take up the matter with Sri Lanka and demand punishing of the guilty Lankan Naval officials in yesterday's incident," an official release said.

Expressing his condolences to the bereaved family members of the deceased Jayakumar, Karunanidhi announced a sum of Rs5 lakh as compensation to the kin of the victim.

Afer the January 12 killing, India had summoned the Sri Lankan high commissioner and lodged a strong protest over the incident. But the island nation has denied involvement of its navy in it.

Karunanidhi had sent a telegram to the prime minister demanding his intervention to stop such attacks.