: Fifty-one Tamil Nadu fishermen, who were released by Sri Lanka as a goodwill gesture, arrived at the Karaikal port on Tuesday evening.
The fishermen belonging to Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai and Thoothukudi districts were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for straying into the Lankan waters between November and December, 2016. They were subsequently lodged in prisons in Sri Lanka. Of them, 32 fishermen are from Ramanathapuram district and 12 from Pudukottai district.
Sri Lanka had released all of them on January 6 as per the agreement reached in Colombo after a meeting between Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh and Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development of Sri Lanka Mahinda Amaraweera, recently. Earlier in the day, the Sri Lankan Navy handed over 51 fishermen to the Coast Guard officials. The repatriation took place near the International Maritime Boundary Line between India and Sri Lanka. The fishermen were subsequently brought by a Coast Guard patrolling ship to Karaikal.
Meanwhile, six fishermen belonging to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who had drifted into Sri Lankan waters near Trincomalee due to the impact of Nada cyclone, also returned to Karaikal on Tuesday. Sri Lankan Navy handed them over to the Coast Guard officials near IMBL. They had ventured into the sea from Andaman on November 27.
