Help free fishermen in Iran, CM urges Modi

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make diplomatic efforts for the release of four fishermen detained by Iranian authorities.
Louis Sasi, Antony Soosai, Anthony and Arokiam, hailing from Kanyakumari district, were engaged in fishing in Qatar on contract basis. On September 16, the fishermen ventured out and inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters and were arrested.
“The four fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are in prison on Kish Island in Iran, are the sole breadwinners of their families and had gone to Qatar to earn a better livelihood. Their prolonged incarceration will severely affect their families in India,” Jayalalithaa said in a letter to the Prime Minister. The chief minister urged Modi to direct the Indian embassy in Teheran to take legal steps to secure the release of the fishermen.
On Friday diplomatic sources at the Indian Embassy in Doha said that the detained men are yet to be produced before the court. The families of the detained fishermen met the Kanyakumari collector Sajjansingh R Chavan on Thursday and submitted a representation to him to prevail upon the Indian Embassy in Doha to take steps for the fishermen’s release.
“The Indian diplomatic mission should spare no effort in contacting their local sponsor and ensuring the speedy release of these men,” said Shamsudheen Chettippadi, a social worker associated with fishing community in Jubail in Saudi Arabia. He said one more fishing boat from Bahrain is reported to have detained by Qatari authorities two days ago for allegedly trespassing into their territorial waters. The fishermen on the boat have been identified as Muthu Govindaraj (42), Gunasekaran Rakapan (22) and Balu Thoondi (44).
The death of Karthikeyan shot by Qatar authorities earlier this week has shocked the fishermen of Jubail,where many fishermen from Tamil Nadu work. Earlier Indian fishermen working in Saudi Arabia too inadvertently had strayed into territorial waters of other countries and were detained for months. In December 2012, as many as 19 fishermen in four boats inadvertently strayed into Iranian waters and were detained for nine months. The fishermen were released after a huge public outcry. In May, 2013, Thomas Soosai, a 48-year-old fisherman from Kanyakumari district, was shot dead off the Bahrain coast by Iranian pirates.