Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has once again urged the Centre to intervene to secure release of Tamil fishermen captured by Sri Lanka.
After the December 21 incident, the number of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody has gone up to 51.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister wrote again to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to secure release of fishermen captured by Sri Lanka.
This is the fourth letter written by Panneerselvam to the Prime Minister since he took over as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.
In his letter, Panneerselvam has requested the Centre to intervene and help in getting back the 51 Indian fishermen under the Sri Lankan custody. Panneerselvam also talked about the 114 boats that were captured by the Sri Lankan authorities.
He sought help in getting back those boats to their original owners. Panneerselvam said that he wrote the letter "with deep anguish at the very unfortunate and needlessly provocative remarks of the Sri Lankan Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic resources development Mahinda Amaraweera which indicated that the fishing boats and gear of the Indian fishermen of Tamil Nadu which are under the Sri Lankan custody will be taken over and made the property of Sri Lankan government."
Panneerselvam termed the Sri Lankan minister's statement as veiled threats aimed at intimidating the Indian fishermen in order to keep them from exercising their traditional rights of fishing.
Panneerselvam urged the Prime Minister to get the 51 fishermen and the 114 boats released and bring about relief for the fishing community in Tamil Nadu.
Sri Lanka has captured 51 Indian fishermen over time. The last such instance occurred when on December 21, Sri Lanka captured 29 fishermen and five fishing boats.
Tamil Nadu has requested the Centre several times not to treat the International Maritime Boundary Line with Sri Lanka as a settled issue. Under Jayalalithaa, Tamil Nadu government challenged the constitutionality of the 1974-India-Sri Lanka Agreement by which the small island of Katchatheevu was ceded to the southern neighbor.