Describing the arrest of 25 Tamil Nadu fishermen and six boats by the Sri Lankan Navy in mid-sea as ‘an extremely unfortunate episode ahead of the January 27 talks’, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday night requested Prime Minister to take decisive steps to ensure immediate release of all TN fishermen in Lankan prisons.

“Only such a decisive action taken at the earliest could facilitate the smooth conduct of the talks between the two countries,” the Chief Minister said in her letter to the Prime Minister.

“This latest incident definitely requires your personal intervention and I exhort you to take concrete and decisive action to ensure the immediate release of the 25 fishermen apprehended on Tuesday without their being remanded by the Sri Lankan courts. Further, the 64 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are still in Sri Lankan custody along with their 69 boats should be released forthwith,” the Chief Minister said.

She recalled that Tamil Nadu had taken a positive and accommodative stance by releasing 130 Lankan fishermen and seven boats, and said: “It is most disconcerting and shocking that the Lankan Navy had returned to its marauding acts.”

“In spite of the assiduous and decisive steps being taken by my government to defuse the tense situation prevailing in the coastal districts of Tamil Nadu and create a conducive and accommodative atmosphere for the smooth conduct of bilateral fishermen-level talks, the action of the Sri Lankan authorities has come as a rude shock to the fishermen community in Tamil Nadu,” she further said.

Jayalalithaa pointed out that 64 TN fishermen were yet to be released and 69 fishing boats were detained by Lanka, affecting the fishermen’ livelihoods.

Meanwhile seventy eight Sri Lankan fishermen, who spent more than two months in Puzhal prison, sailed from Chennai coast, back home.

Sixty-one fishermen sailed in Indian Coastguard ship Samudra Pahredar on Tuesday while 17 of them took the sea route from Kasimedu fishing harbour in four fishing boats that were seized by the coastguard.

“The Sri Lankan fishermen will be released in exchange for the release of our fishermen,” a coastguard official, who is accompanying the crew said.

Their departure was delayed by more than eight hours due to lack of provisions like diesel and batteries. The harbour also witnessed anxious fish owners who had flown from Sri Lanka and stayed in Chennai in a bid to free their fishing boats.

The fishermen, who were released by Tamil Nadu police, were all praise for the food at Puzhal jail. Pathun, a tenth standard dropout who was arrested on November 23, said the taste of the food in prison still lingers on. He said in broken Hindi that Lankan fishermen come to India to catch big fish.(Indian Express)