Chennai: Senior leaders of ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu today observed day-long fasts across the state condemning "frequent" killings of Indian fishermen, allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, and asked the Centre to immediately take up the matter with Colombo.

Inaugurating the fast here, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi urged leaders of various political parties to stand united and voice their concerns on this issue. "Some political leaders have accused us of not taking up the matter with the Centre. But we had taken up the issue with all MPs in the Lok Sabha and with all political parties," he said.

Karunanidhi demanded that the Centre should take steps to retrieve Katchatheevu, ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974 under a special pact. To take the wind out of the opposition criticism that it was not doing anything to save the fishermen, the party high command had asked senior leaders like N Veerasamy, M K Stalin, Duraimurugan and Kanimozhi to lead the fast.

Karunanidhi had taken care to see that his family members led the fast at important fishing centres - his son Stalin at Rameswaram and daughter Kanimozhi at Nagapattinam. While DMK treasurer N Veeraswamy headed the fast at Chennai, party's Principal Secretary Duraimurugan led the fast at Mahabalipuram. Karunanidhi s grand-daughter Kayalvizhi Azhagiri participated in the fast at Madurai.

Union Ministers T R Baalu and A Raja were leading the fast at Tiruvottiyur and Perambalur, respectively. Union Ministers Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, S Reghupathy, K Venkatapathy, Radhika Selvi and S S Palanimanikam participated in the fast elsewhere. Baalu said he would hand over a copy of resolutions adopted on the fishermen issue, at the party's apex committee meeting on Thursday, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow.
Source : PTI