Three of the six Malayali fishermen, who were arrested by the police in Qatar for straying into the country’s territorial waters and later released, returned to the state on Thursday. Vijayan Christopher, 36, and Arun, 22, from Poonthura and Michael Selvadasan, 34, from Adimalathura reached Thiruvananthapuram airport at 5.40pm. The Malayali fishermen were arrested by the Qatar police after the fishing vessel drifted into the country’s territorial waters on June 3.
The fishermen landed in Iran on December 19 last year. Norka department was in constant touch with the Indian embassies in Qatar and Iran to secure the fishermen’s release. They reached Mumbai on Thursday morning and later boarded a flight to Thiruvananthapuram. Of the three other fishermen, two – Ratheesh and Selvam – had reached the state two days ago. Basil, the only remaining fisherman in Qatar, has contracted Covid and will return after the quarantine period. All three are from Poonthura.