High Commissioner meets India’s foreign minister
Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to New Delhi, Kshenuka Senewiratne, met India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, and conveyed the Sri Lankan Government’s concerns over the incident of a naval officer being killed while encountering Indian fishermen illegally operating in Sri Lankan territorial waters.
Ms. Senewiratne met the Indian Minister in New Delhi on the same day of the incident taking place in Sri Lanka’s northern waters, where Indian fishermen have been engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing for several years.
In Colombo, the Foreign Ministry summoned a diplomat from the Indian High Commission to convey the Sri Lankan government’s concerns about the incident. The ministry’s South Asia Director General Niluka Kadurugamuwa conveyed the government’s concerns and also reiterated Sri Lanka’s opposition through a formal note to continuing IUU fishing, especially bottom trawling and indiscriminate poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters.
The naval officer died when an Indian fishing trawler “aggressively manoeuvred” to crasg into the Sri Lanka Navy patrol craft on a special operation off Kankesanthurai, according to the SL Navy. He was an officer from the Special Boat Squadron.
The victim, Priyantha Ratnayaka, 40, was posthumously promoted to the rank of Fleet Chief Petty Officer. The funeral took place in his village in Ibbagamuwa, Kurunegala, on Thursday.
Source: Sunday Times
