Rajapaksa India visit

Bhopal, Sep 21 (IANS) MDMK leader Vaiko and his around 700 supporters, who were protesting Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to Madhya Pradesh, were Friday detained in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh.

A day after his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, Rajapaksa reached Sanchi to lay the foundation stone of Buddhist and Indic Studies University at Sanchi amid tight security arrangements.

In anticipation of protests by activists of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), the state government has put in place elaborate security arrangements for the visit of the Lankan president’s visit.

"We will not forgive BJP government in Madhya Pradesh. All the protesters came here and decided to get arrested," Vaiko told reporters here.

The MDMK is protesting against the conduct of Sri Lankan forces during the climactic phase of the war against the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) in 2009 which killed and displaced thousands of Tamils in the island nation.

–Indo-Asian News Service