India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will visit Sri Lanka on October 7 to hold discussions with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and senior officials there on halting the recurring attacks and arrests of Indian fishermen.
He would also raise the issue of freeing the arrested fishermen besides handing over their boats and nets belonging to them. Announcing Khurshid’s visit, Union minister of state in PMO V. Narayanasamy told reporters in Chennai on Thursday that the discussions with Sri Lanka would pave way for a permanent solution.
“The fishermen along with their properties would return home soon,” he was quoted as saying by the Deccan Chronicle.
To a query on the opposition in Tamil Nadu against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s participation in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled in Colombo next month, he said, “the Prime Minister will take a call on that.”
