External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha that a total of 97 Indian fishermen are currently in Sri Lankan custody. Out of a total of 97, 83 are sentenced, waiting for three trials and 11 are detained. Answering the supplementary questions during the Question Hour, Jaishankar said that India is trying to interact with Sri Lanka to adopt a human view on the issue. In particular, the center is trying to find long-term methods, which involves planting transponders on fishing boats so that the situation does not occur frequently.
Jaishankar blamed the decisions taken in 1974 and 1976 at the core of the situation in front of the country today. The minister underlined that the problem started in 1974, when the then central government set the international maritime border in consultation with the state government. He told the Upper House, the situation is that there were 86 Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody till yesterday. Today another traler is caught, and similarly 11 more fishermen have been caught. Overall, 97 of them are in custody. 83 are serving sentence, waiting for three trials and 11 are caught today.
The Foreign Minister said that those who are serving sentence, they either own boats or are repeated crime, which makes the case complicated and makes it difficult to deal with the situation. He said that therefore our effort is to free people diplomatically, through our colleagues of the fisheries department, so that transponders can be fitted so that no one is unknowingly crossed the boundary, and in the meantime we are trying to see if we can give them an alternative solution so that this situation does not arise.
