தமிழீழம்: Protests in Tamil Nadu gain momentum, Jayalalithaa extends support

In a significant move amid the building momentum in Tamil Nadu where Tamil leaders are voicing their support to the Eezham Tamils as the Sri Lankan forces intensified their attacks on Vanni, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and the Leader of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, J. Jayalalithaa, Saturday extended her support to a fasting campaign being organised by the Communist Party of India (CPI). In a letter to D. Pandyan, the general secretary of the CPI in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa said her party extended wholehearted support to the success of the campaign, which highlights the problems and urges to safeguard the lives, properties and the rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The CPI organised fasting campaign is to take place in all the district capitals of Tamil Nadu state on 02 October that falls on the date of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday.

The CPI has urged the Centre in India to pressurise the Sri Lankan government to immediately halt the killings and to return to the path of negotiations, stating that the war being waged by the Sri Lankan government is against Tamil speaking population in general and that it was not viewed as a war against a militant movement.

The leftist parties in Tamil Nadu, which aim to form a third front in the coming elections, have extended their support to Eelam Tamilas Tamil Writers Association also voiced for the rights of Eezham Tamils.

In the meantime, Dr. S. Ramadoss, the founder-leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Tamil Nadu has also announced a protest on 30 September.

The president of the movement Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) K. Veeramani and Thol. Thirumavalavan, the leader of the political party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Kadchchi (VCK), courted arrest last Tuesday along with five hundred of their cadres while attempting a rail blockade in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu, to protest against Indian aid to the Sri Lankan state.

The reports of the engagement of Indian military radar operators in the wake of an attack by the Tigers on Sri Lankan Forces Vanni Headquarters (SF-HQ) in Vavuniyaa, in which at least two Indian personnel were wounded, have fuelled the protests in Tamil Nadu against Indian military aid to Colombo against Tamils.