After intervention from the Ministry of External Affairs and Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai, the twelve Indian Tamil fishermen who had been apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy were released.
Shaa hails from Akkaraipettai in the Nagapattinam district. Twelve fishermen from Nagapattinam namely, Anandamani (44), Raja (32), Veeraiyan and his son Ravi (48), Mathibalan (36), Kaththalingam (50), Ramamurthy (38), Anbu (32), Velmai (48), Raghu (38), Dinesh (26) and Chitravel (42) went for fishing taking the mechanized boats of Shaa on 7th of this month from Nagai fishing harbor in Akkaraipettai.
In this situation, on March 11, when they were fishing near Kodiyakarai South-East sea, Sri Lankan Navy arrested them on charges of fishing across the border. Their fishing boats were seized and taken to Sri Lanka’s Kaangesan port, where all twelve Tamil fishermen were investigated.
After hearing about the arrest, family members of the detained fishermen arrived at Nagai Akkaripettai port and sobbed. They requested that both the central and state governments take action and release the imprisoned fishermen.
In this instance, on March 12, Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai wrote a letter to Dr. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, requesting his intervention in securing the detainees’ prompt repatriation. In his letter, Annamalai said,” We bring to your attention yesterday’s arrest of 16 Fishermen from Pudhukottai and Nagapattinam by the Sri Lankan navy. Two fishing boats belonging to them have also been seized during the arrest. We request the kind intervention of our External affairs ministry for the early repatriation of the detainees.”
In this case, the Sri Lanka Paruthithurai court released all 12 Nagapattinam fishermen who had been detained by the Sri Lanka Navy. Relatives of imprisoned fishermen rejoiced upon hearing the news. Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai thanked Minister for External Affairs Jaishankar and Indian Embassy in Sri Lanka for their immediate intervention and release of 12 detained fishermen.
On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu & the Tamil fishermen community, we thank our Hon EAM Thiru @DrSJaishankar avl & the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka for their immediate intervention and for the release of 12 detained fishermen. @VMBJP @Murugan_MoS
(1/2) https://t.co/LM3U0Kxaza
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) March 17, 2023
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