Srilanka

Asian Mayors Council chief confirms Tamil threat

By ANI

Tuesday December 5, 03:32 PM

Dehradun, Dec.5 (ANI): Organisers of the recent Asian Mayors Conference in Dehradun have said that they received threats from several Tamil organisations for inviting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to be the chief guest at the function. Chairperson of Asian Council of Mayors, Manorama Sharma, confirmed that she received seven threat telegrams to cancel Rajapakse's visit. The three-day conference was held between November 26 and 28.

"When the visit of the Sri Lankan President was confirmed and the security agencies started the security arrangements for his visit, I received at least seven telegrams from Tamil organisations to postpone the visit of the President or to face the consequences. But I did not disclose this at that time, because I thought that people will get scared and will not come to attend the conference," said Manorama Sharma, Chairperson Asian Council of Mayors. Sharma said that she didn't disclose the threat earlier because she did not wanted to spread panic among the members of the Council. She, however, said that she had informed the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of the Police, and added that she was not sure whether the threats were sent by the LTTE or not.

"I cannot say whether the telegrams were sent by them or some one was just doing it for fun. I forwarded the telegrams to the LIU and they forwarded it to the SP (Superintendent of Police) and the DM (District Magistrate),"added Sharma. The Senior Superintendent of Police of Dehradun, S K Gunjayal, confirmed Manorama Sharma's statement of receiving the threat, and said that the telegram was sent from a district in South India.

"Before the arrival of the Sri Lankan President, to attend the Asian Council of Mayors Conference in Dehradun, the organiser of the event received threat telegrams to cancel the event. We found out that the telegram was sent from a district in South India by the name of some professor. But that Professor is innocent, they have just used his name. No link of any terrorist organisation was found yet," said S K Gunjayal, Senior Superintendent of Police, Dehradun.

The Tamil organisations were opposing the visit of the Sri Lankan President to India in protest of the alleged ill treatment of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.


ANI