India releases Sri Lankan fishermen

Chennai: Sixty-one Sri Lankan fishermen who ventured into Indian waters to fish and captured were released along with their twelve boats on July 23.

They were caught near Tamil Nadu-Andhra border, off Chennai.

They were handed over to the Coast Guard in the presence of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission officials on Friday evening. The fishermen will be handed over to Sri Lankan Navy on July 27 at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

The Joint Action committee headed by the Chennai district Collector, enquired into the matter, and as a good will measure and on humanitarian grounds, released them without any judicial punishment, it is said.Forty more Lankan fishermen are in Puzhal jail. Soon after enquiry they will also be released.

On the Sri Lankan side, twenty-one Indian fishermen, who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on July 4 for allegedly violating the maritime rules, were repatriated. Earlier they were released by a Mannar court on July 13.

A Sri Lankan Naval ship handed over them to 'Aruna Asaf Ali,' an Indian Coast Guard ship at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) on Wednesday. It also formally handed over five mechanised boats with their nets. The fishermen belonging to Rameswaram, Pamban and Thangatchimadam areas were escorted to the Coast Guard station at Mandapam.

On arrival, intelligence and security agencies jointly interrogated them on the circumstances that led to their arrest. Fishermen's leaders and their relatives received them at the jetty.

Courtesy:Asian Tribune