New Delhi, March 5 :

A grouping of Indian fishermen has urged the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard to protect them from attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy which they say have left 400 people dead or wounded in the last two years.

The National Fish Workers Forum (NFF) has shot off letters to prime minister Manmohan Singh and defence minister A K Antony, demanding that the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard “should be alerted to protect the Indian fishermen”.

NFF spokesman Thomas Kocherry said on phone that most fishermen whom the Sri Lankan Navy attacks in the sea for their suspected links with the Tamil Tigers were from Tamil Nadu, particularly from the Ramanathapuram district.

Asked what the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard could do, Tamil Nadu-based Kocherry said they should randomly check the fishing vessels leaving the Indian coast so that the Sri Lankans feel reassured and stop their attacks.

“There is only a 30-km distance at one point between the Indian and Sri Lankan coasts. Where will our fishermen go? The Sri Lankans think everyone is linked to the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). “They are catching people in Indian waters, not Sri Lankan waters. Our people have nothing to do with the LTTE. People are really frightened to go to sea. Naturally, there are major demonstrations in Ramanathapuram, Rameswaram and Nagapattinam.