Karunanidhi ends fast after SL says operations have concluded

Chennai, Apr 27 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK
President Karunanidhi Monday went on a sudden fast early this
morning demanding ceasefire in Sri Lanka and called it off
after six hours once the island government announced that
combat operations have concluded.

"The fast has come to an end in view of the fact that the
Sri Lankan government has announced an end to the war," said
Karunanidhi reading from a statement from a bed at the fast
site at the Anna memorial on the shores of Marina.

The 85-year-old leader called off the fast at 1230 hrs,
six hours after he began it demanding an immediate end to the
ongoing war in Sri Lanka where he said innocent Tamils were
being killed.

Home Minister P Chidambaram said the Sri Lankan
government's statement meant that it is end and cessation of
hostilities which Indian interlocutors had been urging.

Karunanidhi's announcement was hailed by the huge crowd
of DMK activists gathered near the memorial to late C N
Annadurai. The DMK workers had been shouting slogans urging
him to withdraw his fast.

The fast also undertaken by leaders and workers of the
state was also called off.

Earlier in the day, the DMK chief came unannounced at the
Anna memorial and began his fast.

"Let me be one of his (Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapakse's) victims", he said.

Accusing the Sri Lankan army of killing the Tamils in the
island nation in the ongoing offensive against the LTTE,
Karunanidhi said "this (fast) is my sacrifice for the cause of
Tamils".

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was unhappy over the recent
mission of NSA M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv
Shankar Menon to Colombo not yielding any result and the Sri
Lankan government rejecting LTTE's unilateral ceasefire offer.

He was joined in the fast by his son M K Azhagiri and a
number of senior ministers and leaders besides many party
ers.

Concerned over his health, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Congress President Sonia Gandhi spoke to Karunanidhi and
appealed to him to give up his protest fast. Karunanidhi's
party MPs made separate appeals to the Centre and Lankan
government, to bring about a permanent ceasefire stating that
their leader undertook the fast against medical advice
"risking his precious life."

Around 300 DMK workers and leaders including Union
Shipping Minister T R Baalu, Rajya Sabha MP and Karunanidhi's
daughter Kanimozhi and his grand nephew and former Union IT
Minister Dayanidhi Maran were with the DMK President.

DK leader K Veeramani and Congress leader G K Vasan also
visited the protest site and appealed to him to give up his
fast. PTI