The Kerala Fishing Boat Owners’ Association has sought the immediate intervention of the State government to intercept a Malaysian tankship that allegedly hit a boat from Beypore off the Kochi coast on Thursday morning and caused huge damage to it.
Fishers who reportedly had a close shave with minor injuries identified the ship as Global Peak. According to them, the incident took place around 5.30 a.m. The fishermen were brought back to the Beypore coast in another boat in the evening.
Karichalil Preman, vice president of the Kerala Fishing Boat Owners Association, said there were 13 fishers, including 11 from West Bengal and two from Tamil Nadu, in Al-Naeem, the boat that met with the accident. He alleged that the cargo vessel had ignored warning signals from the boat that was sailing around 15 nautical miles off the Kochi coast.
The fishermen sustained injuries following a fall in the impact of the collision. They claimed that the ship crew did not offer help following the accident. It was some local fishermen, who witnessed the incident from another boat named Ahadh, who rescued the injured fishers and collected details of the ship, they said.
