Chennai: Accusing the Centre of betraying Sri Lankan Tamils, MDMK General Secretary Vaiko today requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately stop the sale and supply of arms to the island nation and get back the radars already supplied.

In a letter to Singh, he said that contrary to the decision taken by the Centre at an all-party meeting in 1998, the present UPA government was supplying weapons to be used by the Sri Lankan military against Tamils, represented by LTTE.

"I am terribly shocked that India is continuing the supply of radars to the Sri Lankan Air Force, which strafed and bombed and killed thousands of innocent men, women and children of Tamils all these years," he said. "Though India did not sign the Indo-Sri Lankan defence cooperation pact in 2004 due to stiff opposition of MDMK and other political parties, I am pained to charge that India is clandestinely operating as a silent partner of a military pact," Vaiko added.

Stating that he understood from reliable sources that India had supplied more radars, first in January and then in June, he asked "Is it a reward by the Centre to Sri Lanka for the Chencholai massacre (in which 61 Tamil girls were killed) in August 2006? By such an "atrocious attitude and action, the UPA government had buried deep, the far sighted foreign policy framed and adopted by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi," he charged.

Political parties, particularly constituents of the Tamil Nadu government, should bear the responsibility for the "betrayal," the MDMK chief added.