'Hartal' in Tamil Nadu over Lankan Tamil issue

(October 31, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) It wasn’t business as usual today. For, traders all over the State closed their shops in a symbolic show to condemn the alleged killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka, hitting normalcy in Tamilnadu.

The one-day protest by traders seemed to be an undeclared holiday for outlets ranging from medical shops to groceries to textile showrooms to tea shops.

Called by Tamilnadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peravai, the strike was declared a major success by its president T Vellaiyan, who was later arrested for allegedly ‘urging’ a shop owner at Doveton to down shutters.

A huge number of Vellaiyan’s supporters were also detained by the police for pressurising the entreprenuer to take part in the strike, ‘expressing solidarity to innocent Tamils and urging the Union government to immediately intervene in the issue.’ However, they were released after some time.

Normalcy was totally hit in Koyambedu market, which is used to hectic business activities from dawn to dusk. As a result, traders and truck drivers had a field day watching televisions, going to films and taking rest in their shops and homes. And the irony is, most of the shop owners and workers did not know the exact reason behind the strike.

‘Office bearers of our association asked us to close the shops today. I think we are doing it for some Sri Lankan issue, for which directors Seeman and Ameer were arrested,’ said a grocery shop owner at Koyambedu.

Reports from Trichy, Madurai, and Tirunelveli and other parts of Tamilnadu said that the situation was no different as most of the shops were closed. - Sri Lanka Guardian