New Delhi expressed the hope that Colombo will take necessary steps to release all the captured Indian fishermen at the earliest. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Thursday the External Affairs minister S M Krishna said that he had taken up the issue with the Srilankan government and suggested that the captured fishermen must be released. He said, since Thursday is a holiday and the courts are closed in Colombo, the fishermen will be released on Friday.The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Wednesday pointed out that Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao had gone to Colombo earlier this month to make a strong demarche to the Sri Lankan government that this sort of behaviour is not acceptable among neighbourly countries. As already reported another batch of 24 Indian fishermen were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan police off Tamil Nadu coast . Now 136 fishermen are in Sri Lankan custody.