Sri Lanka releases 20 jailed Indian fishermen
FILE PHOTO –
The External Affairs Ministry today announced that India and Sri Lanka had begun the process of releasing fishermen trapped in Lankan jails.
MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted to say that 20 fishermen had been released today. “India-Srilanka begin process of release of fishermen. 1st batch of 20 released,” he wrote.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier requesting him to help secure the release of 275 Indian fishermen, most of whom are Tamilians. On Saturday, she even proposed that the Centre engage in a dialogue with Sri Lanka over the captured fishermen.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sushma Swaraj had also announced a protest in Rameshwaram.
The DMK’s Elangovan, however, slammed both the Centre and the state government, saying that more pressure needs to be put on Colombo.
“Government is lethargic on this issue. The state government must put an pressure on the central government. The government of India needs to put enough pressure on government of Sri Lanka to release them,” he said. (IBN Live)
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This is totally ridiculous. These Indian fishermen repeatedly violate our territorial waters to fish using trawlers to devastate our fish stock as they have done theirs. It cost our Navy to patrol these waters arrest these illicit fishermen. India should in fact compensate SL for the devastation Indian trawler fishing has done to our fish stock. GLP, the SL Ext Minister, is past his expiry date an d should be put out to grass. He has done little in defence of our motherland. He has become a Minister through the back door. When will the President shuffle him out and appoint a younger, capable and efficient man to this post? He should argue against the release of these illicit Indian fishermen and also the confiscation of their boats/trawlers and gear. In a tit-for-tat move SL Tamil fishermen are also languishing in Indian jails and their small boats confiscated. What has the spineless GLP done to secure their release in exchange?