THOOTHUKUDI: Twenty-four fishermen belonging to the Tharuvaikulam fishing harbour have been released from a Maldivian prison. Fisheries department officials received them upon their arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport late on Sunday.
However, two fishermen — Muralitharan and Bhuvaneswaran — belonging to the Sri Lankan Tamil Rehabilitation Centre at Villupuram in Tamil Nadu have not been released yet due to passport issues, sources said.
They require a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Sri Lankan embassy, stating that they are not Sri Lankans.
The 26 fishermen were detained by the Maldivian authorities for alleged illegal fishing in the territorial waters of the Indian Ocean country.
It was after repeated efforts of the External Affairs Ministry that the Maldivian government released the 24 fishermen; however, their vessels were not released.
A representative of the Tharuvaikulam fishermen said on Sunday that they have appealed against the penalty, equivalent to INR 4.77 crore, imposed by the Maldivian government.
The Tamil Nadu government bore the flight charges of the 24 fishermen, he said.
The fishermen, who went on three mechanised gill netter fishing vessels, were detained by the Maldivian Coast Guard on October 13 and escorted to the detention centre at Dhoni Dhu island of the Maldives.
The three vessels were impounded on charges of trespassing into the Maritime Zone of the Maldives, fishing without obtaining prior permission, and engaging in a prohibited form of fishing. The seized vessels belong to S Michael John Sankar, S Soosai Packiam, and A Ramesh Kumar of Tharuvaikulam.
The Tharuvaikulam fishermen urged the state and central governments to take action expeditiously to repatriate the two other fishermen and to get back the three vessels confiscated by the Maldivian authorities.
