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We will arrest Vaiko, says Jayalalithaa

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JULY 2. While asking the Centre to take action against the MDMK leader, Vaiko, for his pro-LTTE speeches, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today declared her Government's intention to arrest him.

In a letter to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, the Chief Minister referred to Mr. Vaiko's speech at Thirumangalam in Madurai district on June 29 and said it attracted the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Prevention of Terrorism Act. ``We have no other option but to proceed against the individual both under POTA and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and to arrest the individual who has blatantly spoken in support of the terrorist outfit in total disregard and defiance of the laws of the land,'' she said.

Noting that Mr. Vaiko was a sitting member of Parliament and leader of a political party which was a constituent of the ruling NDA at the Centre, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that ignoring Mr. Vaiko's speech would make a mockery of the Centre's efforts to take serious and deterrent action against terrorist organisations.

Mr. Vaiko had stated that he was a supporter of the LTTE and that he would continue to be a supporter of that organisation, she said. Unless such "provocative outbursts" were dealt with firmly, supporters of fundamentalist organisations such as SIMI and Al-Qaeda would get emboldened. ``This will be a very dangerous trend, which will be difficult to arrest if not contained now, even if such condemnable tendencies of taking the law of the nation and the government for granted are exhibited by the so-called allies of the Central Government,'' she added.

(Mr. Vaiko is at present in the United States.)

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