The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in Tamil Nadu will stage State-wide agitation if the 14 Rameswaram fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan navy on a charge of poaching on June 2 were not released at the end of their judicial remand on August 13, party president G.K. Vasan has said.
Addressing the fishing community at Thangachimadam near Rameswaram, Vasan, who was on a “Towards the people” programme, said the fishermen were languishing in a jail for more than two months but neither the State nor the Centre bothered to secure their release, The Hindu newspaper reported.
The party’s agitation was to draw the attention of the State and Central governments to the plight of the fishing community and exert pressure on them to take steps to secure the release of the fishermen, he said.
Referring to reports that the Lankan authorities delayed the release of the fishermen in view of the Prime Ministerial elections in the island nation, he said that the Centre should categorically tell the island nation that it should not link the fishermen release to the elections.