“Indian Congress will not forgive LTTE”

(January 25, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Reiterating that Congress party would never forgive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for "assassinating" former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, a senior legislator yesterday urged the Tamil Nadu government to take steps to bring LTTE leader V Prabakaran to India to face trial in the assassination case.

Participating in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address in the assembly, C. Gnanasekaran said in the last two years, after the DMK came to power, as many as 102 LTTE militants had infiltrated into the state and this posed grave threat to peace and tranquility in the state.

He said the Congress party had no second opinion that a political solution should be found to end the ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka, but would never support any assistance to the LTTE in a bid to end the crisis in the Country.

"We will not forget or forgive the LTTE, which left a deep scar by assassinating our beloved young leader, who came to Tamil Nadu to seek votes for us", he said and demanded that the state government take steps to get Prabakaran deported to India to face trial in the case.

Gnanasekaran said the trial court, after declaring the LTTE supremo as proclaimed offender in the case, had issued Non Bailable Warrant (NBW) against him and the same was pending in the court. The Sri Lankan government had also declared that it would capture Prabakaran and hand him over to India, he said.

Expressing concern over the "open support" offered by some of the political parties and organisations in Tamil Nadu for the banned organisation, he urged Chief Minsiter M Karunanidhi to take stern action against them and ban such organisations. The parties and organisations which supported the LTTE should not forget the fact that it had killed more Tamils than the Sri Lankan forces, he charged.