A day after India lodged a strong protest against detention of its fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy, a court in the island nation on Friday ordered the release of 34 fishermen, officials of a fishermen association in India said.
Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 53 Indian fishermen in the last 24 hours for allegedly entering its waters illegally, prompting India to summon Lankan deputy high commissioner in New Delhi.
The arrest came as the group was departing Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula, Naval spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said, adding that among the arrested, 38 were men, 28 women and 14 children.
A Sri Lankan court on Tuesday ordered the release of 56 Indian fishermen who were detained for allegedly fishing in the island nation's territorial waters.
The fishermen were apprehended along with their seven boats and handed over to the Ilawalai police in northern Jaffna peninsular on Wednesday by a group of local fishermen.
The fierce clashes got under way at a time when President Mahinda Rajapaksa unveiled the budget proposals for 2008 in Parliament and vowed to wipe out terrorism completely in the island nation.
The LTTE triggered long-range artillery shelling at the Forward Defence Lines of the military at Muhamalai in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
A suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber blew himself up when troops surrounded him in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, where two Tamil Tiger rebels and a soldier were killed in separate incidents, the army said in Colombo on Monday.
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its troops killed more than 100 Tamil Tigers while it lost 43 soldiers, with another 33 missing in action. The LTTE, however, claimed that at least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed in the clashes and put their own losses at 16.
The Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday claimed that it has killed at least 40 Tamil Tiger rebels when it confronted a flotilla of Sea Tiger boats in the seas off Vettilaikerni in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
"The air strikes were a sequel to the constant mortar attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the forward defence line of the Army," a statement from the ministry said.
The LTTE said on Tuesday that they were entering talks although they had little confidence that the government will deliver on promises made to restore normality.
Nine Lankan soldiers were also killed.
The Sea Tigers seized two fast attack crafts of the Sri Lankan navy and dismantled all the armament including a 23 mm canon and an AGL gun before destroying them.
Defence sources said at least six soldiers were feared dead and 60 others wounded in the battle. However, there was no independent confirmation of the army casualties.
the Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
Thirty-eight Tamil Nadu fishermen were on Thursday arrested by Sri Lankan navy for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary line, three days after fishermen representatives of India and Sri Lanka met to discuss the vexed fishing issue.
Superstar Rajinikanth's visit to Sri Lanka next month to inaugurate a housing scheme has met with opposition from pro-Tamil outfits in Chennai, who cautioned him from getting "involved" in the emotive ethnic issue.
The actor said he took the decision after founders of Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Vaiko and Thol Thirumavalavan respectively, and Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi leader T Velmurugan asked him to consider withdrawing from the programme.
Five Indian fishermen were given the death penalty by a Sri Lankan court on Thursday for alleged drug trafficking, prompting a response from India that it will appeal to a higher court against the judgement.
With some countries like Britain and Canada seeking to bring alleged human rights violations in the Sri Lankan civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam under the scanner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting summit, President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday asked member nations not to turn the Commonwealth into a "punitive and judgmental" body and desist from introducing bilateral agendas.
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