Political parties in Tamil Nadu welcome release of 5 Indian fishermen

CHENNAI: Political parties in Tamil Nadu today welcomed the release of five Indian fishermen who were sentenced to death in Sri Lanka for alleged drug trafficking.

DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan expressed joy over the release of the five following a presidential pardon by Mahinda Rajapaksa.

He recalled that his party chief M Karunanidhi had thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking steps to ensure that the five fishermen, hailing from Tamil Nadu and arrested in 2011, were released.

BJP's state unit attributed the development to the efforts of Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

"But people will realise (about) those who criticised the Centre without understanding its genuine efforts and goodwill," BJP's state unit President Tamizhisai Sounderrajan, said.

In a statement here, she recalled the meeting Swaraj had had with a delegation of fishermen representatives in Delhi yesterday and said she had assured them that all steps were being taken for the release of the five fishermen.

She thanked Modi and Swaraj for the release of the fishermen and said that the "day is not far" when a lasting solution will be found out to the vexed issue of rivalry over fishing in the Palk Straits between fishermen of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

CPI(M) state unit secretary G Ramakrishnan, while welcoming the release, said "the credit goes to all the political parties and people of the state."

"Almost all parties had demanded their release. My party had demanded that they should be released without any conditions. The credit (for their release) goes to the political parties and the people of Tamil Nadu," he told PTI.

The five fishermen-- Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet -- were apprehended in 2011 and sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court on October 30 for alleged drug trafficking.

President Rajapakse had commuted their death sentence after Modi took up the matter with him even as India withdrew an appeal in that country's Supreme Court against the death penalty to facilitate the former commute the verdict.

The state's ruling AIADMK and other political parties in the state had vehemently protested against the conviction and subsequent awarding of death sentence, alleging that the drug case was a 'foisted one.' All of them had sought the Centre's intervention to secure their release.

DMK chief M Karunanidhi said he was very happy over the release of the fishermen.

"The release of five fishermen gives me immense joy," he told reporters here.

"I had already expressed my happiness and welcomed their release when indications first began surfacing, hinting at their imminent freedom," he said.