Chennai: Taking a serious view of the latest arrest of 32 fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy ahead of talks over contentious fishing rights in Palk Strait, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in securing the release of all 153 fishermen detained in the island nation.
In a letter to Singh, she said the March 3 arrest of the 32 fishermen, including two from Karaikal in Puducherry, must be seen as "a deliberate attempt by Sri Lanka to vitiate the atmosphere before the second round of the fishermen-level talks in Colombo on March 13." Noting that the second round of talks were slated subject to the condition that all detained fishermen and their boats should be released ahead of it, she said the latest arrest had come as a rude shock to the fishermen community in the state. "I am at a loss for words to convey my deep anguish and pain over the repeated instances of apprehension and incarceration of fishermen from Tamil Nadu," she said.
While 116 fishermen are in prison for more than a month, five others were languishing in jail in a fabricated case for more than two years in Sri Lanka. She asked the Prime Minister to "decisively" use all available diplomatic channels to secure the immediate release of all 153 fishermen along with their boats.
During his meeting with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse in Myanmar on the margins of the BIMSTEC Summit yesterday, Singh had raised the fishermen issue and said it needed to be addressed in a humane manner as it involved livelihood issues.
