Parties welcome call for probe

Political parties on Friday welcomed the condemnation by UN experts of the police action during the anti-Sterlite protest in Thoothukudi, in which 13 people were killed, as well as their call for an independent probe into the incident.

“Whenever human rights are violated and people are brutally murdered, the UN Human Rights Council, and particularly the UN Working Group on human rights and transnational organisations, take up such issues. The Indian government and the Tamil Nadu government are now duty-bound to punish the guilty,” MDMK general secretary Vaiko told

The Hindu.

Expressing elation over the UN taking note of crimes committed against Tamils, he said, “Now (when it comes to) any injustice done to Tamils anywhere in the world, the guilty cannot escape. The Sterlite killings were cold-blooded, pre-planned murders [carried out] to appease Sterlite at the behest of the State and Central governments.”

“This statement [by the UN body] substantiates the charges levelled by the DMK that the police firing was excessive, unwarranted and disproportionate. Therefore, the moral mandate of this AIADMK government is destroyed, and the Chief Minister must take full responsibility and tender his resignation. Now that international agencies have taken note [of the incident], we hope that the Prime Minister will also follow suit,” DMK spokesperson Manuraj Shunmugasundaram said.

CBI probe sought

The VCK demanded a CBI probe into the killings. “Although the National Human Rights Commission has already taken up the matter, the condemnation by the UN Working Group will exert more pressure [on the authorities],” VCK general secretary Ravi Kumar said.

He said the killings during the anti-Sterlite protests had dented India’s image.