RAMESWARAM: The 23 fishermen from Rameswaram, freed from a Sri Lankan prison, said here on Thursday they were kept in cells along with mentally-ill persons and suffered untold hardship.The fishermen who went fishing from Rameswaram on June 20 in five mechanised boats were arrested by the Sri Lankan navy and detained in the Anuradhapuram prison. They were released by a Mannar court on Wednesday.On Thursday, the Sri Lankan navy ferried the fishermen and their boats up to the international maritime boundary line (IMBL) where the Indian Coast Guard took them and produced them before the officers at Mandapam. They were received by Commander More of the ICG, tahsildar Ganesan, U Arulanantham of the Alliance for Release of Innocent Fishermen and others.The fishermen said a case was registered against them on the charge of trespassing the IBML and they were chained and taken to the prison in Vavuniya like war criminals.They were detained at Vavuniya prison for two days and then taken to Anuradhapuram prison by van.There, they were put in cells along with some mentally-ill persons. “Some of them would start screaming every now and then. They had also dirtied the floor of the cells with excreta. This was done by the Sri Lankan police to insult us,” the fishermen claimed.
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