COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's first overseas visit will be to India and the visit is likely to take place in February, according to Dr.Rajitha Senaratne, one of the key supporters of Sirisena and a former Fisheries Minister.
Senaratne told the media here on Saturday, that he would request President Sirisena to release all Tamil Nadu fishermen still in Lankan custody as a measure of goodwill.
Asked if their vessels will also be released he said: "We will have to take a policy decision on that."
On the just concluded Lankan Presidential election in which Sirisena beat incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa, he charged that in the last stages of polling Rajapaksa tried to get the army to rig the process, "but the Army Commander refused to oblige."
Meanwhile, the Sirisena government appointed B.M.U.D Basnayaka as Defence Secretary replacing Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the powerful sibling of Mahinda Rajapaksa.Basnayaka was Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Energy.P.B.Abeykoon, who was Secretary Administration, has taken over as Presidential Secretary from Lalith Weeratunge.Both Gotabaya and Weeratunge were too closely associated with Rajapaksa' s political line.