Govt reaches out to act on Pon Radhakrishnan's terror warning
State ministers have been repeatedly trying to rubbish Radhakrishnan's warnings of increased extremist activity in the state.
Chennai: Rattled by the repeated ‘warnings’ from Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan that extremists have been active in Tamil Nadu, a delegation of state ministers called on the BJP senior to assuage his fears and promise prompt police action to nip the threat.
“He has been saying extremists are getting trained in some mountain ranges in Tamil Nadu. Some of us, ministers, met him (Radhakrishnan) yesterday (Friday) and requested him to be more specific and name the hills where such activity is going on. He gave us some details, the name of a particular mountain. Police will take action”, said Tamil development minister Mafoi K. Pandiarajan, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Shaiva-Sidhantha centenary celebration at the Madras University on Saturday.
He was asked if he thought there was some important topic discussed when Union Minister Radhakrishnan called on Chief Minister K. Palaniswami at the latter’s residence earlier in the day.
“Quite possible”, replied Pandiarajan. “It is possible that the Union Minister discussed this (extremist) issue with the CM and gave the details to him. Our government will certainly take suitable action”, he said.
State ministers have been repeatedly trying to rubbish Radhakrishnan’s warnings of increased extremist activity in the state.
The Union Minister has alleged the involvement of these ‘extremist’ elements and their allies in the Tamil fringe groups in the recent spurt in agitations against development projects and major corporates in the state.
In fact, the CM too had said that ‘outside elements’ had infiltrated the Thoothukudi agitation against Sterlite and caused the violent attack on policemen and public property, which led to the police firing that killed 13 protesters.