Fishermen’s kin seek release of boats too

RAMESWARAM: The Sri Lankan government’s goodwill gesture to release 16 Tamil Nadu fishermen recently captured by them in the high seas, ahead of the Island-government Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India beginning Monday, has cheered coastal fishing community at large along South coast.

The news of their release has lifted sentiments of a good section of the mechanised boat owners here who have been on strike for the last ten days to press for their three-point charter of demands including India taking up with Mr Wickremesinghe the need to amicably resolve the long-pending issues faced by Indian fishermen when they put out to sea in Palk straits.

Of the 16 Tamil Nadu fishermen apprehended by the Sri Lankan security forces recently, three are from Jegathapattinam in Pudukkottai district, nine from Nagapattinam district and four from Thangachchimadam in Ramanathapuram district, sources here said.

The 16 fishermen who had been remanded in batches by courts in Northern Sri Lanka had been lodged in prisons in Kankesanthurai and Jaffna, were all freed following the Sri Lankan government ordering their release, reports reaching here said. They were then handed over to the Indian deputy high commissioner’s office in Jaffna and are expected to reach their respective homes in a day or two.

“We are extremely happy that the (Tamil Nadu) fishermen have been released but the (three) boats seized by Sri Lankan authorities should also be released as they are the source of our livelihood,”  said Ms Jency, wife of one of the arrested fishermen Michael whose return she eagerly awaits at her home near here. The fishermen here hope that Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi will strongly take up their cause with Mr Wickremesinghe in New Delhi.