Chennai: Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalithaa on Thursday announced that she will lead a state-wide fast on March 10, demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka and the party will raise funds to help the Lankan Tamils.
In a statement in Chennai, Jayalalithaa said the one-day fast was also to condemn the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre and DMK government in the state for remaining mute spectators to the genocide against the Tamils in the island.
Stating that "our Tamil brethren are being massacred and facing hardship without food and medical facilities" following the brutal attack by the Lankan armed forces, Jayalalithaa said the Lankan Tamils could be saved only if there was an immediate ceasefire.
To press this demand, the AIADMK would launch a hunger strike throughout the state. She would lead the fast in the city on March 10 from 0900 hrs IST to 1700 hrs IST and the party's office bearers at the district headquarters.
At the fasting venues, a bag would be kept to collect money for the suffering Tamils. She would launch the collection by making the first contribution, she said and asked partymen to contribute generously to alleviate the sufferings of Tamils.
Jayalalithaa also exhorted party volunteers from all wings and general public to participate in the hunger strike in large numbers and express their solidarity with the Lankan Tamils.
This was the first agitation being launched by the AIADMK ever since the Sri Lankan Tamils issue hogged the state politics on October two last year, when the Communist Party of India (CPI), launched a fast, demanding ceasefire.
The AIADMK, which had initially offered support to the fast, failed to take part in it and since then the party had not been associating itself with the agitations organised by its allies like CPI, Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) and other parties.
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