Minutes before addressing an election meeting in Vedaranyam on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who secured the release of five Tamil Nadu fishermen facing death sentence in Sri Lanka, made it a point to meet them.

“It gave me immense pleasure to meet the five fishermen who were saved from the jaws of death,” Modi said at the meeting later. “I am really happy that the five fishermen are back with their family,” he said amid applause from the huge gathering

Narrating the sequence of events leading to their release, Modi said soon after the BJP came to power, the Centre impressed upon Sri Lankan government not to execute the death sentence against the five fishermen. Although the Lankan government agreed to the Indian government’s request not to hang the five, it, however, stated that they would have to remain in jail for their life.

Modi said he had to impress upon the Sri Lankan government personally to release the five fishermen so that they could be reunited with their family. “I told the Lankan government that I am the father and mother of the five fishermen” he said.

(The Hindu)