Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi intervene and ensure the release of 10 fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday.

In a letter to Modi, Panneerselvam said the arrest was unfortunate since it takes at a time when fishermen are hopeful that a pragmatic and permanent solution to this issue would emerge from the Ministerial level meeting which took place at Colombo on Monday, the Deccan Chronicle said.

“A firm, clear, unequivocal and unambiguous message should be sent out by the Government of India to the SL side to ensure that these trends are reversed and thereby signal that the Government of India is firmly committed to protect the livelihood of the poor and innocent fishermen from TN who are engaged in fishing,” he said.

 The CM also brought to Modi's attention that already 51 Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu are languishing in Sri Lankan jails. He demanded that all 61 fishermen are released.