Fishermen block rail and road traffic, burn bus
Protesters block rail track in Rameswaram to protest against Sri Lankan court judgment. (Photo: DC )
Colombo/New Delhi: Five Indian fishermen were given the death penalty by a Sri Lankan court on Thursday for alleged drug trafficking, invoking a sharp reaction from India which took up the matter with Sri Lanka and said it would appeal to a higher court against the judgement.
The five Indians are among a group of eight people sentenced to death by Colombo high court judge Preethi Padman Surasena for alleged involvement in heroin trafficking between India and Sri Lanka in 2011. The rest three are Sri Lankans.
However, the Indian government, which has been pursuing their case for the last four years, maintains that it has done due diligence and found them to be innocent. Immediately reacting to the Lankan court verdict, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin in New Delhi said, “After the judgement against five fishermen by lower court in Sri Lanka, India once again takes up matter of their innocence with Sri Lanka and India’s High Commission in Colombo will appeal to higher court through a lawyer against the verdict.”
While a senior MEA official spoke to the Lankan High Commissioner to India in New Delhi, the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo was getting in touch with the Sri Lankan government regarding the case.
The spokesperson said that India has been pursuing the case at two levels, legal and official and will continue doing so. “India-Sri Lanka are in constant touch in aftermath of the judgement against the fishermen,” he said. The five fishermen were arrested in 2011 by the Lankan navy on charges of smuggling of drugs in the seas off northern Jaffna’s Delft islet. The fishermen issue is an emotive matter for both Lanka and TN where parties have been urging the Centre’s intervention.
( Source : PTI )
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