No clue of missing fishermen or hit and run ship

The navy and coast guard continued to search for three missing fishermen on Friday, a day after a ship collided with their boat off the Kerala coast, claiming two lives. There is no clue of the erring vessel either.

A top shipping official told agencies on condition of anonymity that search operations would be on for some more time.

"Since the accident took place, our officials have intercepted some ships to see if they had any role in it. These things have to be done in a manner that does not interfere with the rights of the ships. The vessels that ply on the waters have their privileges too as per international law," said the official.

A ship rammed into the fishing boat, Don 1, early Thursday, leaving two fishermen dead, three missing, while two escaped with injuries. The boat had gone for fishing activities from the Kollam harbour last week and dropped anchor in the deep sea.

Navy divers are expected to reach the accident site. Locals feel the body of the missing fishermen could be trapped in the capsized boat.

Anger is mounting in fishing community, which says that despite 15 similar accidents in the past three months, nothing has happened except assurances to increase coastal security.

"Three high speed interceptor boats that cost more than Rs.4 crore have been lying idle near Alappuzha as there are no qualified drivers for them. Had such a boat been in service, the life of Xavier (who died an hour after he was rescued in Thursday's incident) could have been saved," said George, a trade union leader of the fishing community.

The villages of Chavara and Panmana from which the two killed and three missing fishermen of Thursday's incident hail are observing a total shutdown on Friday with shops and establishments all closed and no fishermen has gone for fishing activities.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy visited the homes of the dead fishermen Thursday and paid his last respects. He announced that the next cabinet meeting would decide on the compensation to be handed out to the kith and kin of those killed.

Besides compensation in cash, one family member each of the deceased would be given a government job.

The accident came close on the heels of the Feb 15 incident when two fishermen, one from Kerala and another from Tamil Nadu, were shot dead by security officials of the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie who mistook them for pirates.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/130843" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-7ab06427cfa2de71efa663a865120e7a" value="form-7ab06427cfa2de71efa663a865120e7a" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80045728" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.