News Detail

• Armed guards on board an Italian oil tanker are suspected of shooting dead two fishermen (One from Tamil Nadu, one from Kerala) after mistaking them for pirates, a navy officer said on Thursday. The coast guard has brought back the bodies of two men who are thought to have been killed on Wednesday by security forces on the Italian vessel Enrica Lexie 64 kilometres (40 miles) off India's southern state of Kerala.India on Thursday summoned the Italian envoy and voiced concern over the killing of two fishermen by security officials of the Italian cargo vessel and underlined that the captain of the ship should cooperate with local authorities.
• M Ganapathi, secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry, met Italian ambassador Giacomo Sanfelice di Montefort and told him that the captain has to cooperate with Indian officials probing the incident.The captain of Enrica Lexie, who has been ordered to anchor near a local port, told officials the fishermen were mistaken for pirates after they sailed close to the tanker in a motorised boat, navy spokesman Roy Francis said."The security wing fired at the fishermen and the captain has alerted the coast guard about the firing. We are making a detailed investigation," the naval spokesman said.
• Shipping companies are increasingly employing private security companies to protect their vessels because of dangers in the seas off the coast of Somalia where ships of all sizes have been seized by pirates.Freddie Louis, who owns the Indian fishing vessel, said gunmen on board the tanker fired at the boat "without provocation," killing the two unarmed men aged 50 and 21.The boat with 11 men had sailed out to trawl for tuna fish on February 7."We were returning after the fishing and all of us were were sleeping except Valentine and Pinki," Louis told AFP, identifying the victims by their first names.
• "The firing lasted for two minutes (and then) we steered the boat out of firing range," he added.The coast guard launched two surveillance ships and an aircraft to track down the tanker after the incident, naval spokesman Francis said.Fishermen union leader T. Peter described the attack as the first by a foreign vessel off the coast of Kerala."We are all shocked," Peter added.India, which has one warship deployed off Somalia on anti-piracy patrols, has warned that pirates have expanded their reach deep into the Indian Ocean.The Kerala cabinet has decided to give Rs 500,000 as compensation each to the next of kin of the two fishermen shot dead Wednesday evening after being mistaken for pirates.

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