Sonia speaks to Karunanidhi on Lankan Tamils issue

Chennai, Oct 26 (UNI) AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi today spoke to DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi by telephone and discussed the ''boiling'' Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

An official release here said, Ms Sonia spoke to the Chief Minister from New Delhi over telephone and discussed the present situation in the strife torn Lanka.

She also explained the steps being taken by the Centre on the Lankan Tamils issue and said she was deputing External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to meet him later today for detailed discussions on the same.

Mr Karunanidhi expressed happiness over the steps being taken by the Centre and thanked Ms Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mr Pranab Mukherjee in this regard.

It may be recalled that an all party-meeting convened by the ruling DMK had set a two-week ultimatum to the Centre to take steps to ensure ceasefire in Sri Lanka, charging that innocent Tamils were being killed by the Lankan army.

The meeting also threatened to withdraw all the MPs from Tamil Nadu, both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Following this, all the DMK MPs, including its Union Ministers, tendered their post-dated resignation letters to Mr Karunanidhi.

The deadline would expire by October 29 and it was in this context that Mr Pranab Mukherjee would be airdashing to the city to explain in detail the steps taken by the Centre on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

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