THONDAMAN FORCED TO LEAVE COIMBATORE FOLLOWING PROTESTS

In the second such incident in about month, a Sri Lankan minister was forced to leave Coimbatore on Saturday after a group of Naam Tamilar Katchi activists staged a demonstration in front of his hotel, demanding that he leave India immediately.

Arumugam Thondaman, Cabinet Minister of Livestock and Rural Community Development, vacated the hotel shortly after the protest and left the city for Chennai, Indian police said.

Some Naam Tamilar Katchi activists almost laid siege to the hotel located in the heart of the city, where Thondaman was staying and raised slogans against him and the Sri Lankan government, they were quoted as saying by PTI.

The protesters attempted to jump over the main gate of the hotel but were prevented and chased away, police said. They also took 15 persons into custody in connection with the incident.

Naam Tamilar Katchi is led by Indian film director and known LTTE supporter Sebastian Seeman.

On January 10 last month, suspected MDMK and NTK activists allegedly barged into the house of the Ramanathaswamy Temple priest in Rameswaram and threw stones and slippers when the husband of Deputy Minister Nirupama Rajapaksa was about to perform a ‘pooja’.

On January 29 it was reported that Uva Provincial Council Member Senthil Thondaman, the nephew of Minister Arumugam Thondaman, was harassed by a group of political activists while visiting a temple in Tamil Nadu.