Students in Chennai protest against alleged Indian military aid to Colombo

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 07:00 GMT]
Tamil Nadu Police arrested a group of students in front of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Tuesday while they were attempting to protest against what they alleged as an attempt by the Indian Government to export battle-tanks to the Sri Lankan military, reacting to reports and photographs that have appeared in a largest selling Tamil daily (Erode edition of Dianthanthi). Meanwhle, Tamil political leaders in Tamil Nadu, when contacted by TamilNet said that they were investigating the veracity of the claim that tanks photographed at Erode were destined for the Colombo government.

Tamil newspaper Dinathanthi in its Erode edition on Monday carried pictures of Indian tanks being shipped from New Delhi via Erode to Thiruvananthapuram.

Unconfirmed reports had alleged that the shipment of tanks were on they way to Sri Lanka as military aid.

"On one hand India is staging the drama of Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Colombo. And it is said that he has peace on his agenda. But the Indian government is conniving and carrying on the genocide of the Tamil people in Vanni by shipping tanks. Politicians might soft-pedal, but we cannot tolerate this any longer," a student leader told reporters minutes before he was arrested by the Tamil Nadu Police.

Meanwhile, Lawyers Collective in Chennai has announced that it would stage demonstrations later on Tuesday at the Officers Training Academy, an Army base in Nandanam in Chennai to voice their protest against the alleged Indian military support to Sri Lanka.



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