Karunanidhi ends fast after SL says operations have concluded

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president Karunanidhi went on a sudden fast early this morning demanding ceasefire in Sri Lanka and called it off after six hours once the island government announced that combat operations have concluded.
 
"The fast has come to an end in view of the fact that the Sri Lankan government has announced an end to the war," said Karunanidhi reading from a statement from a bed at the fast site at the Anna memorial on the shores of Marina.

The 85-year-old leader called off the fast at 1230 hrs, six hours after he began it demanding an immediate end to the ongoing war in Sri Lanka where he said innocent Tamils were being killed.

Home minister P Chidambaram said the Sri Lankan government's statement meant that it is end and cessation of hostilities which Indian interlocutors had been urging.

Karunanidhi's announcement was hailed by the huge crowd of DMK activists gathered near the memorial to late CN Annadurai. The DMK workers had been shouting slogans urging him to withdraw his fast.

The fast also undertaken by leaders and workers of the state was also called off.

Earlier in the day, the DMK chief came unannounced at the Anna memorial and began his fast.

"Let me be one of his (Sri Lankan pMahinda Rajapakse's) victims", he said. Accusing the Sri Lankan army of killing the Tamils in the island nation in the ongoing offensive against the LTTE, Karunanidhi said "this (fast) is my sacrifice for the cause of Tamils".

The Tamil Nadu chief minister was unhappy over the recent mission of NSA M K Narayanan and Foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon to Colombo not yielding any result and the Sri Lankan government rejecting LTTE's unilateral ceasefire offer.

He was joined in the fast by his son MK Azhagiri and a number of senior ministers and leaders besides many party workers.

Concerned over his health, prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi spoke to Karunanidhi and appealed to him to give up his protest fast.

Karunanidhi's party MPs made separate appeals to the Centre and Lankan government, to bring about a permanent ceasefire stating that their leader undertook the fast against medical advice "risking his precious life."

Around 300 DMK workers and leaders including Union Shipping minister TR Baalu, Rajya Sabha MP and Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and his grand nephew and former Union IT minister Dayanidhi Maran were with the DMK president.

DK leader K Veeramani and Congress leader GK Vasan also visited the protest site and appealed to him to give up his fast.

Karunanidhi attributed the "good news of cessation of hostilities," by the Sri Lankan government as the reason for ending his fast.

It was due to the UPA government's efforts that the Sri Lankan government had announced a ceasefire, he said while expressing hope that the army would now be employed for relief and rehabilitation process.