A 30-year-old youth here died on Friday after setting himself on fire, amid student protests across Tamil Nadu over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, which has entered the tenth day. Tamil refugees in the city are on fast.
Surprisingly, even a section of Congress party workers joined in the anti-Rajapakse (Sri Lanka President) protests in Theni district in the south of the state. They said they felt “let down” by India’s insufficient response at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting in Geneva, where India voted for a US resolution against Sri Lanka.
The demonstrators even attempted to burn a Congress flag, but police foiled them.
Police said Vikram, the self-immolation victim, was listening to speakers at a street-corner meeting in suburban Nerkundram, on the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lanka late on Thursday night.
Already “disturbed” over the recent developments since pictures of the slain LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s son Balachandran came out, Vikram suddenly got up, as the meeting was ending, poured petrol over himself and set himself on fire, raising “pro-Tamil Eelam” slogans.
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