SL releases 20 jailed Indian fishermen

The External Affairs Ministry today announced that India and Sri Lanka had begun the process of releasing fishermen trapped in Lankan jails.

MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted to say that 20 fishermen had been released today. "India-Srilanka begin process of release of fishermen. 1st batch of 20 released," he wrote.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier requesting him to help secure the release of 275 Indian fishermen, most of whom are Tamilians. On Saturday, she even proposed that the Centre engage in a dialogue with Sri Lanka over the captured fishermen.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushma Swaraj had also announced a protest in Rameshwaram.

The DMK's Elangovan, however, slammed both the Centre and the state government, saying that more pressure needs to be put on Colombo.

"Government is lethargic on this issue. The state government must put an pressure on the central government. The government of India needs to put enough pressure on government of Sri Lanka to release them," he said. (IBN Live)