The Israeli army said on Sunday that the man was shot dead as he was trying to sneak into Israel. Israeli military sources said he had been killed at the Kissoufim border point, near the camp, adding that it was the second time an armed Palestinian had tried to cross into Israeli from the Gaza strip. Duraisamy says chanting the hymns gives him inner peace which allows him to endure being impaled without pain or bloodshed. But the hymns are also prayers for help for his people, more than two million ethnic Indians, around 10 per cent of the population of this southeast Asian country of 22 million. Hindu Indians are the country s third largest ethnic group but politically and economically marginalised and have little influence in the Malay-dominated government.
Thousands remain trapped in poverty, alcoholism and crime.
Duraisamy prepares for the Thaipusam festival, expected to attract around one million people to the Batu caves temple, in his makeshift house near Malaysia s main Hindu temple. Like scores of others on the fringes of Malaysian cities, the township is built illegally on government-owned land, with no power and no fresh water supply. The government wants to evict the 1,000 ethnic Indian residents in the area to make way for a new housing project, but Duraisamy said the new houses they have been offered under a resettlement plan are too expensive. Indian high commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopalkrishan took up the issue with Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on Sunday and sought details of the incident. He affirmed India s position that fishermen from both countries straying into each other s territorial waters could be apprehended but firing should never be resorted to.