Forty-five of the 102 fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan navy on a charge of poaching and released by the Sri Lankan government on the occasion of Pongal, arrived here on Thursday to an emotional family reunion. The remaining 57 fishermen from Pudukottai and Nagapattinam were taken to Karaikal.

After the fishermen walked out from the Mandapam station of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) here on Thursday, family members received them with tears of joy and agony.

Those arrived included 33 from Rameswaram, eight from Mandapam and four from Jagadapattinam in Pudukottai district, who boarded the Mandapam ICG vessel by mistake. Before repatriating them, the Sri Lankan authorities warned them against crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the future, they said.

The Lankan authorities told them that they made their laws more stringent and they would be jailed for one year if they were arrested on a charge of poaching in the future, Dayalan (30) a Rameswaram fisherman said. After their release on January 14, they were accommodated in a lodge in Jaffna by the office of Consulate General of Indian in Jaffna, he said. U. Arulanandham, president of Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF), said that the four Nagapattinam fishermen who were arrested on a charge of using filament fishing nets and released on Thursday, could not be repatriated for want of clearance.

The fishermen were arrested during November-December. The Lankan navy handed over the fishermen to the ICG at the IMBL.

Source: The Hindu

-Agencies