Chinese presence in Lanka threat to national security: MK

Terming reports of Chinese presence

in Sri Lanka as a threat to India's national security, DMK

chief M Karunanidhi today said the August 12 conference of the

pro-Eelam body TESO would discuss it among other things and

bring it to the attention of the Centre. Citing reports in a section of the vernacular media, he

alleged that Sri Lanka was setting up a "temporary camp," with

the assistance of the Chinese Navy in international waters

near Dhanushkodi. "Should not such issues, a threat to India's security, be

discussed and taken up with the Centre for a solution? We are

holding TESO (Tamil Ealam Supporters' Organisation) meeting

for this purpose only (among others)," he said in a letter to

party workers. Explaining the rationale behind the first meet of the

defunct organisation he founded in the 1980s and recently

revived by him, Karunanidhi said the conference was an attempt

at healing the "wounds sustained by Tamils," due to the ethnic

clash in Sri Lanka. Union Ministers Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah and JD (U)

leader Sharad Yadav among a gamut of national and

international leaders besides Tamil diaspora will participate

in the meet, he added.