C Shivakumar
Chennai:
Seventy eight Sri Lankan fishermen, who spent more than two months in Puzhal prison, sailed out of the Chennai coast to be repatriated with their countrymen.
Sixty-one fishermen sailed off in Indian Coastguard ship Samudra Pahredar on Tuesday while 17 Lankan fishermen took sea route from Kasimedu fishing harbor through 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.
He said the exchange would happen at the International Maritime Boundary Line.
Interestingly, the departure of Sri Lankan fishermen was delayed by more than eight hours due to lack of provisions like diesel and batteries. Sirimal A Pinto, national coordinator of Alliance for Release of Innocent Fishermen Sri Lanka, and a Sri Lanka embassy representative said that the delay was due to non-availability of diesel as well as theft of batteries from the fishing boat.
Coastguard officials who are accompanying the fishermen from Kasimedu harbor said that 800 litres of diesel is required to reach the international maritime boundary line. “Many of the boats had only 300 litres or 200 litres of diesel,” he said. Initially, six Sri Lankan boats were to be released but due to lack of provisions only four were allowed to sail. They include Shanika, Nemmel, Kapil Budda and Duluth Putha.
The harbor also had anxious fish owners who had flown from Sri Lanka and had stationed in Chennai in a bid to free their fishing boats. Janak from Trincomallee whose boat Jayalux is under Indian custody for more than 50 days is deperate to get it released. His family of four are dependent solely on the income generated from fishing. Although the six crew on the ship have been released but the boat is still under captivity, Janak said.
Pinto said that the arrests of fishermen by Sri Lanka and India started in June last year. He said still 49 Sri Lankan fishermen are languishing in Puzhal jail and hoped they would be released soon.
Interestingly, the fishermen, who were released by Tamil Nadu police, have all praise for the food at Puzhal jail. Pathun, a 10th standard dropout who was arrested on November 23 for trespassing into Indian waters, said the taste of the food in prison still lingers on. Living a hand to mouth existence, Pathun says the food was great in the jail.
He said in broken Hindi that Sri lankan fishermen come to India to catch big fish. “We get only small fish in our coast,” says Chanaka, who was released in the evening.
A coastguard official said that it will take 48 hours to reach the International maritime boundary line. “The project time to reach IMBL was around 1300 hours of January 23. But it looks like it will be delayed,” the coastguard official stated
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