Nailing the lies of the Italian naval marines who fired and killed two Indian fishermen on the pretext of avoiding a piracy attack in the Indian waters off Kerala coast on Feb 15, Indian Coast Guard’s inquiry has concluded that the Italian oil tanker ship Enrica Lexie didn’t have a response plan against piracy attack.

“The ship had no response plan or mechanism to deal with piracy attacks, if any,” said the report, concluding the incident took place at 20.5 nautical miles in Indian sea waters off the nearest Kerala coast.

The report further said the vessel could have avoided the incident if it had equipped with a proper mechanism to deal with incidents of piracy.

“The firing at the innocent fishermen, who stranded in a boat 100 meters away from the Italian ship, is a clear case of contravention of the International Maritime Organization guidelines,” said the coast guard report.

The marines resorted to firing without assessing the actual situation. “The fishermen are at their job just 100 meters away in their boat from the Italian vessel and they never made any attempts to board the foreign vessel,” the coast guard report said, adding, the use of force against them was illegal. (JUBS)