While Indian PM Narendra Modi today thanked the President for pardoning and sending back the Indian fishermen who were on death row over drug smuggling charges, leader of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHI) Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thero slammed the government’s decision to commute the death sentence.

Sobitha Thero issuing a statement expressed that the government’s ruling to release the fishermen has encouraged and gave ‘green light’ for the Indian drug lords to continue their smuggling through the sea.

The Thero defined this particular incident as the initial stage of a series of awful consequences. 

“It is a well known secret that heroin and other drugs are smuggled into the country with the aid of Indian fishermen. This smuggling is also supported by some controversial politicians and businessmen. A strict law should be implemented on drug smugglers, in spite of their nationality, religion, or race.

This has given an ‘official clearance’ for the Indian fishermen to engage in drug trafficking.” Sobitha Thero said in the statement.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa commuted death sentence of five Indian fishermen convicted for smuggling drugs into the country, on 19 November.

Emerson, P Augustus, R Wilson, K Prasath and J Langlet, all hailing from Tamil Nadu, were apprehended in 2011 and were sentenced to death by the Colombo high court on October 30.

The court ruling had triggered fiery protests in parts of Tamil Nadu and sporadic violence broke out in and around Rameswaram island.