Bengaluru: Fifteen fishermen from Uttara Kannada district, who had illegally entered Iran five months ago, have been released by the authorities.
S S Nakul, Uttara Kannada Deputy Commissioner, said in a statement that Karnataka Chief Minister and the district administration had written to the Union government, and that the fifteen fishermen were released from detention yesterday.
The fishermen were working on three boats owned by a UAE businessman, and they, along with three other fishermen from Dubai, were detained since 27 July after they had entered Kish island in Iran. They had posted a video through WhatsApp to Karwar district administration, which in turn wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs and requested Sushma Swaraj to take up the matter.
According to the official, the release of the fishermen was delayed as one of the Dubai-based fishermen in the detention escaped from the boat, and as a punishment, the Iranian authorities had sent the other two Dubai-based fishermen to jail and Indian fishermen were detained.
Even though the boat owners made efforts to release the Indians, it was only after the intervention of the Indian Foreign Affairs Ministry that the Iranian government agreed to release them. The fishermen are enroute to UAE and they would return to India soon, said the official.