Chennai, Jun 13: Condemning yesterday’s blast at a Railway track in Villuppuram district as an ”attempted act of extremism”, senior Congress leader and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the incident should not be construed as targeted at him.
In a brief interaction with the media after calling on DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at his residence here, he described the blasting of the Railway track near Perani as an ”attempted act of extremism.” Mr Chidambaram said alert Railway staff averted a major mishap as the Rockfort Express from Trichy to Chennai was stopped in the nick of time, barely ten metres from the blast site.
Expressing confidence that the Tamil Nadu police would definitely nab the culprits, he said police and intelligence agencies were working together in this regard.
Mr Chidambaram, who was scheduled to travel to Trichy from Chennai by Rockfort Express, that crossed the spot at 0030 hrs, two hours before the track was blown up by suspected LTTE supporters, said it should not be construed that it was targeted at him.
The Union Home Minister said during his meeting, he apprised Mr Karunanidhi of the recent visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India and said Sri Lanka had promised to resettle the 55,000 Tamils within three to six months in their own places.
He said India had agreed to provide Rs 1000 crore for construction of 50,000 houses for the Internally displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka at the rate of Rs two lakh per house.
”The amount will be directly disbursed through banks to the respective family heads with the support of the Sri Lankan government. Both the governments are working out the modalities in this regard,” he added.
–Agencies