Five fishing vessels detained for more than a fortnight have been released by Qatar’s coastguards in the last two days, according to sources. The boats carried about 18 Indian fishermen. The sources told Gulf Times that the fishermen’s sponsors had paid the fines imposed on the vessels for straying into the country’s territorial waters. The boats had come from Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the sources said. One more boat is also likely to be released today. Indian Community Benevolent Fund (ICBF) president Dr Mohan Thomas thanked Qatar coastguard officials for releasing the fishermen. Dr Thomas said the coastguard officials had helped the fishermen during their detention at a coastguard station, about four nautical miles off the Doha coast. He also recalled that the help rendered by the officials to two other groups of Indian fishermen more than a month ago. The ICBF also thanked Indian ambassador Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa for the assistance rendered by the embassy in securing the release of the fishermen. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=289185&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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