Police holding talks with Italians on ballistics

A court in Kollam, which had permitted the police to seize the arms allegedly used in the firing by Naval guards at the fishermen, on Thursday accepted the Italians` plea seeking presence of their representatives during the ballistic examination.

Ballistic experts from Italy are already on their way to Kerala, police sources said. "We do not know when they are expected to reach here. We are discussing with the Italian authorities if we can proceed in their absence".

The sources said if this was permitted, the ballistic examination could be conducted today itself, police sources told PTI here.

Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Staffan de Mistura had told reporters on Thursday that the ballistic examination should be done in their presence.

Meanwhile, the ship which had been berthed at the out of port area is being brought to the oil terminal today for enabling the search operations.

Two Italian naval guards have been arrested and charged with murder of the fishermen killed in firing from the ship off the Kollam coast on February 15. The Italians have been maintaining that they opened fire assuming the fishermen onboard the boat to be pirates.