CHENNAI: Pointing out that appeals by the Centre and State asking Sri Lanka to stop attacks on fishermen of Tamil Nadu had fallen on deaf ears, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, requesting him to take a strong stand against the island nation on the issue.In the letter, Jayalalithaa said the near-daily brutal harassment of the fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and miscreants should be seen as a national problem and the PM should convey his “serious apprehension through tough words and action” to the Sri Lankan Government. Jayalalithaa recalled that the PM had, in his letter dated November 3, informed her that he had raised the issue with the Sri Lankan President in September at a meeting in New York and that the latter had promised to seriously investigate the incidents.“I am constrained to point out that all the concerns of the Centre and Government of Tamil Nadu in this regard have only fallen on deaf ears where the Sri Lankan authorities are concerned,” she said, mentioning 22 such incidents since her government took over in May. “The irony is that even after my letter to you on October 10, there have been at least six more incidents...,” she said, pointing out that they were aimed at creating a fear psychosis among the fishermen to keep them off their traditional fishing locations in the Palk Bay area.
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