MDMK chief Vaiko and his party workers protest against CHOGM meet
MDMK chief Vaiko and around 250 of his party workers were arrested in Madurai this morning for staging a
rail roko protest. Mr Vaiko was demanding a total boycott of the Commonwealth meet in Colombo to be held this week.
The protest was part of a bandh call given by pro-Tamil outfits who want the Central Government to not send any representative to the Colombo meet in a bid to mount pressure on the country to probe allegations of war crimes and human rights violations by the Lankan army against Lankan Tamil civilians during the final phase of the war against the LTTE.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly too would meet this evening for an urgent session. The House, say sources, is likely to pass a fresh strong resolution against the Centre.
The Prime Minister decided to skip the meet following a unanimous resolution by the Tamil Nadu Assembly earlier, calling for a total boycott and action to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth group of nations till the Tamil citizens there received equal rights.
However, a delegation led by Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid would participate in the meet.