MARGAO: Fifteen Goan fishermen were assaulted in a fight between them and Malvan fishermen at Malvan after five fishing trawlers from Cutbona jetty in south Goa strayed into Maharashtrian waters on Sunday. The five trawlers were stopped and blocked there for several hours by fishermen from Malvan.
Fifteen of the workers on Goan trawlers have been seriously injured after the fishermen from Malvan assaulted the Goan fishermen with axes and coconut knifes, sources said. The Malvan fishermen also damaged fishing nets worths lakhs of rupees.
Fishermen of three trawlers managed to escape after the ruckus, but those in two trawlers are still being held hostage by the Malvan fishermen. As a retaliatory move, the Goan fishermen held six trucks from Maharashtra hostage at Margao till late evening.
Cutbona Fishing Trawlers Association president Cipriano Quadros said that fishermen from two trawlers held hostage have been beaten up by locals and fishermen from Malvan. Workers from the trawlers, which escaped the wrath of the assailants, are being treated for the assault.
On Sunday evening at around 5.30 pm five trawlers set out for fishing and entered Maharashtrian waters in Malvan.
The utensils of the fishermen were also not spared. Food items were thrown into the water and their boats also damaged.
Taking strong objection to the attack, Cutbona trawler owners came to Margao and stopped some 15 trucks from Maharashtra that had come to pick up fish from the market. They were forced to unload the trucks and return to Maharashtra.
Sources said that when the Goan trawler owners went to Malvan to register a complaint of assault against the Malvan fishermen, the police filed a false complaint against the Goan fishermen.
Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado on Monday, along with the Benaulim legislator Caetano Silva, Velim MLA Benjamin Silva, Fisheries Director Shamila Monteiro and Cipriano Quadros met Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and discussed the situation. The chief minister has promised trawlers owners of sending the South Goa superintendent of police and deputy superintendent of (South Goa) to Malvan and discuss and solve the matter.
