Chinese presence in Lanka threat to national security: Karuna

Chennai: Terming reports of Chinese presence in Sri Lanka as a threat to India’s national security, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today said the August 12 conference of the pro-Eelam body TESO would discuss it among other things and bring it to the attention of the Centre.

Citing reports in a section of the vernacular media, he alleged that Sri Lanka was setting up a “temporary camp,” with the assistance of the Chinese Navy in international waters near Dhanushkodi.

“Should not such issues, a threat to India’s security, be discussed and taken up with the Centre for a solution? We are holding TESO (Tamil Ealam Supporters’ Organisation) meeting for this purpose only (among others),” he said in a letter to party workers.

Explaining the rationale behind the first meet of the defunct organisation he founded in the 1980s and recently revived by him, Karunanidhi said the conference was an attempt at healing the “wounds sustained by Tamils,” due to the ethnic clash in Sri Lanka.

Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah and JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav among a gamut of national and international leaders besides Tamil diaspora will participate in the meet, he added.