Wickremesinghe's strong comments come even as fishermen from both sides are engaged in talks and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka next week.

"If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed, law allows me to do that," he said in the interview to Thanthi TV broadcast on Friday night. "This is our waters. Fishermen of Jaffna should be allowed to fish. We stopped them from fishing. That's why the Indian fishermen came in. They (Jaffna fishermen) are willing to have a deal. Let's have a reasonable settlement but not at the cost of the livelihood of northern fishermen," he said.

Wickremesinghe said the shooting of fishermen does not amount to human rights violations. "Why are you coming into our waters? Why are you fishing in our waters? Stay on the Indian side. There will be no issue," he said. He also said that Katchatheevu is a closed matter as far as Sri Lanka is concerned. "Katchatheevu is a part of Sri Lanka. Delhi also thinks it is a part of Sri Lanka. I know it is a part of Tamil Nadu politics."
6 SL fishermen detained

Meanwhile, 'the Hindu' reports that the  Indian Coast Guard has detained six Sri Lankan fishermen on the charge of poaching into Indian waters, 128 nautical miles off Nagapattinam coast on Friday.

Commandant Udhal Singh, Station Commander of Indian Coast Guard, Karaikal, told reporters that the six fishermen had left Trincomalee in Sri Lanka in a mechanised boat on February 27. The crew members of Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘Ameya’ noticed the fishing boat during a routine patrol and detained the six Sri Lankan fishermen: Alagiri Nicxon, Kasun Lal Marg, Piyanthe, Ranasingee, Thankarasu and Lalith on the charge of poaching into Indian waters, it adds.

They were brought to Karaikal Marg port along with their mechanised boat. Later they were handed over to Indian Coastal Security Group for further investigation, it further reports.