India summons Lankan envoy over violence against ethnic Tamils

New Delhi, Oct 17 : Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon today summoned Sri Lankan High Commissioner C R Jayasinghe to convey India's concerns over Sri Lankan army's offensive against ethnic Tamils in the island nation.

According to reports, Menon told Jayasinghe that Sri Lanka should take steps to address India's concerns over humanitarian situation there and stop killing and harassment of Indian fishermen.

Earlier in the day, three more MPs of Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) submitted their resignation from the Rajya Sabha to the party President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in Chennai, to protest against the Sri Lankan army offensive against ethnic Tamils.

According to reports, a senior Tamil Nadu minister said that the seven ministers - Cabinet Ministers T R Baalu and A Raja, and Ministers of State - S S Palanimanickam, Subbulakshmi Jagadeesan, S Regupathy, K Venkatapathy and Radhika Selvi - would hand over post-dated letters addressed to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to Karunanidhi for quitting their parliamentary seats.

On October 14, at an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu, convened by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the Centre was served an ultimatum on the Sri Lankan Tamil problem and warned that all MPs from the state would resign en masse, if the government failed to halt the war in the island nation within two weeks.

ANI