Zee Media Bureau
Nay Pyi Taw/New Delhi: Three months after domestic political considerations made him skip a visit to Sri Lanka due to pressure from Tamil parties, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the BIMSTEC Summit on Tuesday.
During his meting with the Sri Lankan President, Dr Singh urged his government to treat the Indian fishermen humanely.
"The Prime Minister said it (the fishermen issue) was a livelihood issue and must be handled in a humane manner by Sri Lanka," Foreign Office spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said at a post-meeting briefing.
The Prime Minister`s concern followed the arrest of at least 32 Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy on Monday for allegedly intruding into their waters and the seizure of their eight trawlers.
The arrests came just ahead of the second round of talks between the fishermen of two sides scheduled March 13 in Colombo, mainly to discuss the rights over the waters in the Pak Strait between the two countries.
Rajapaksa, on his part, raised the proposed resolution against Sri Lanka in Geneva which has been co-sponsored by the US, Britain, Montenegro, the Maldives and Mauritius.
The meeting gains significance as it comes weeks ahead of a United Nations Human Rights Council meet and a vote on a US resolution against Sri Lanka for the alleged war crimes committed by Lankan forces during the final battle with LTTE that ended in May 2009.
Sri Lankan has rejected a call by the UN for an independent international probe into allegations of war crimes and slammed it as "unwarranted interference".
India has so far remained ambivalent on whether it will support the resolution against Sri Lanka.
The Prime Minister had decided not to travel to Sri Lanka in November last year after Tamil Nadu political parties and Congress leaders from the state opposed the visit alleging that the Sri Lankan government has committed atrocities and human rights violations against Tamils.
