The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Military action in Sri Lanka will lead to nowhere, says Ahamed

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Sunday, Jan 18, 2009
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Military action in Sri Lanka will lead to nowhere, says Ahamed

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: “A political solution within the constitutional framework work of Sri Lanka alone will help resolve the ethnic crisis in the island nation and military action will lead to nowhere. This has been the consistent view of the Indian government,” said Union Minister of State for External Affairs E.Ahamed, who is also the national president of the Indian Union Muslim League, here on Saturday.

Mr.Ahamed, who was here in connection with his party’s national executive meeting, said that he could not elaborate as Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon was holding talks with the Sri Lankan President.

He appreciated Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi for playing a positive role in saving the lives of innocent Tamils in the island nation.

Describing the third front floated by some parties at the national level as a pipedream, Mr.Ahamed said it could not achieve anything except dividing “secular votes.” If the front constituents were really interested in taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party, they should support the Congress, the “biggest secular party.”

All State units of the IUML have been directed to send, before the month-end, a list of probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, Mr.Ahamed said.

Earlier, national office-bearers of the party condemned the activities of “anti-national elements” in the country, who were indulging in terrorist activities and propagating communal hatred among people. At the same time, they cautioned against punishing innocent persons.

General secretary K.M.Kader Mohideen said the meeting urged the Tamil Nadu government to set up a welfare board for “Ulemas” to take care of their basic necessities. Claiming to be the “true” IUML, M.G.Dawood Miakhan, president of the State unit of the party, said it would take legal action against Mr. Ahamed and Mr. Mohideen for “misusing the party’s flag and name.”

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