Tags: Tamilnadu , Pranab , Vaika protest

Tuticorin (TN): MDMK leader Vaiko and 194 members of the Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Movement, most of them MDMK workers, were arrested when they attempted to show black flags to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee here today protesting the Centre's "inaction" on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

All the arrested, including two MLAs -- Gnana Das and Varadharajan -- were later produced in a court and remanded to judicial custody, police said.

The agitators, some of whom also carried broom sticks, were protesting India's "indifference" to Sri lankan Tamils issue and "failure" in not applying pressure on the island nation to stop the war and "killing" of civilian Tamils.

A section of the MDMK volunteers, who were lawyers, burnt a portrait of Mukherjee.

The Minister was here to lay the foundation stone for a 1000 MW power project, a joint venture of the Neyveli Lignite Power Corporation and Tamilnadu Electricity Board.

Vaiko, who addressed the volunteers, wanted to know why the Central Government was not convening an all-party meeting to discuss the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

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