Chennai, Aug 24 (IANS): Former Union Shipping Minister and Tamil Manila Congress chief, G.K. Vasan has expressed unhappiness over the repeated attacks on the fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and said that he will press upon the Centre to take up the matter with Sri Lanka.

Vasan, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the recent stone-pelting on the Tamil fishing boats at Katchatheevu by the Sri Lankan Navy damaging 60 boats and injuring a few fishermen is highly deplorable.

The former Union minister said that when fishermen went to sea in 556 boats on Saturday, the Sri Lankan navy conducted heavy stone-pelting on them damaging the boats and the fishing nets causing huge liabilities to the already deprived fishermen.

He said that the fishermen narrowly escaped death when the Sri Lankan naval boats hit their boats and six fishermen got minor injuries.

The former Union minister said that he will take the matter up with the Centre on the insecure feeling of the fishermen ever since the attack. Vasan said that the Sri Lankan Navy has made such attacks on the Indian fishermen a regular practice and called upon the authorities to take up this matter.

The former Union minister said that these regular attacks are affecting the lives in the coastal areas of the state and that the Union government must immediately intervene and take the matter up with the highest officials in the Sri Lankan Navy.