A spokesman for the prisoners told IANS that some of them had spent 16 years in jail and said that Indian authorities were making no efforts to get them released.

The Indian, who spoke on a borrowed mobile phone, claimed there were 43 Indians in Sri Lankan jails -- 28 at Wellikade, 10 in Ngombo and five in Anuradhapura.

'All of them are arrested for drug trafficking. It is a serious crime. But spending more than 16 years in jail in another country is a matter of grave human rights violation,' Musliyaar said.

The convicts are mostly from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Muslim League MP E.T. Mohammed Basheer raised the matter in the Lok Sabha July 29. He urged India to hold talks with Sri Lanka.