Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Feb 10: Malpe Fishermen's Association has termed the inability of Indian Navy, which is expected to guard the shorelines of the country from the enemies and Coast Guard, which was created to keep an eye on undesirable activities, as their failure. The association noted that the fishing boat mentioned above has not been traced since the last 56 days and the agencies have no inkling of what happened to the boat and where are the seven fishermen who were aboard this boat.

"We wonder how can these two agencies which have the primary responsibility of protecting the citizens of the country, and who have miserably failed in finding out the current status of the fishing boat, can save the country from terrorists. The families of the missing fishermen have been finding it extremely hard to spend their days in the absence of any information about their breadwinners. The state and central people's representatives have now stopped pursuing the issue," criticised president of the association, Sathish Kunder, in a statement.

He warned that fishermen from the state will launch strong protest against the state and central governments unless they make all out efforts and find out the current status of the boat and its fishermen within a week from now.

Suspicion about Navy's claim

"On the day the above fishing boat went missing, Indian Navy had reported that the bottom of its warship, INS Kochi, had been damaged after hitting some hard object. We have checked the photo of the damaged ship. The Navy which conducted search operation initially reported that it had found a 23-metre-long object which looked like a boat at the bottom of the sea near Malwan seashore, Maharashtra. However, it now claims that the object which was found deposited 62 meters below the sea surface was not a boat but a rock. A perusal of these claims gives rise to suspicion that we are being misled by feeding false information," Kunder stated.