KOCHI: Refuting the claims of the Italian embassy on merchant vessel Enrica Lexie following maritime protocol before shooting down two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast, the Coast Guard on Friday confirmed that the vessel did not follow the established practices.Contrary to the claims made by Italian officials, the fishermen were unarmed, Coast Guard (Western Region) Regional Commander S P S Basra said here. “Firing on unarmed fishermen was not right. Our waters are not piracy waters, they are fishing waters. We have not witnessed any piracy incident in Indian waters for a long period,” he said and added that Italian Navy personnel committed an “error of judgement”. He pointed out that there was a delay in reporting the incident.Even if there was a piracy attack, the vessel should have reported the incident, he said. “There was a significant delay of nearly two-and-a-half hours in reporting the incident by the vessel to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Mumbai. They committed an error of judgement in shooting at unarmed fishermen,” Basra said. It was the coastal police at Neendakara in Kollam district which reported the incident to the Coast Guard, following which the MRCC launched search operations. The exact location of the vessel would be known only after investigation, Basra said. The incident happened in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone.The Italian vessel took some time to accept the case, Basra said. “An FIR has been registered and the police were investigating the case,” he said. Meanwhile, Vice-Admiral K N Sushil, Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command, said the Italian vessel did not follow the international maritime protocol. He pointed out that even if they mistook the fishermen for pirates, they should have carried out some manoeuvres to alter the course of the vessel. Also they should have fired warning shots, he added.
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