Army veterans join TN BJP hunger strike over killing of jawan

Veterans of the Indian armed forces including the highly decorated Brig N L Narayanan participated in the one-day fast and candlelight march organised by the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP here on Tuesday condemning the killing of Lance Naik M Prabhu and demanding justice for his family.

BJP State chief K Annamalai, who announced a relief of Rs 10 lakh on behalf of the party to Prabhu's family, said the party would bear the education expenses of the soldier's two children. Annamalai, joining several veterans at the day-long fast, said the ex-servicemen have demanded the State government to provide Rs 5 crore as compensation to the family of Prabhu, a government job for the deceased's wife and "a public apology" from the Chief Minister M K Stalin. Speaking to reporters later in the evening, Annamalai questioned the Chief Minister's silence over the killing of the 29-year-old Prabhu by a DMK functionary Chinnaswamy and his aides and claimed that "the police arrested the absconding accused after a week" only after the BJP mounted pressure on the government.

Read | No political angle in army man's death: TN cops

On February 8, an altercation ensued between the DMK functionary Chinnaswamy and Prabhu and the latter's elder brother Prabhakaran, serving as a gunner in the Indian Army, over washing clothes near the town panchayat's water tank at Vellampatti village, Poochampally, in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district. Later, in the evening, both brothers were attacked by Chinnaswamy and his men.

Prabhu, who was severely thrashed, was admitted to a private hospital in Hosur where he succumbed on February 15 while Prabhakaran is undergoing treatment at a hospital. Prabhu, who was posted in Srinagar with the Military Police, had been to his native Vellampatti village, on leave and was expected to report for duty on February 10. A large number of BJP workers and ex-servicemen had last week staged a protest in Krishnagiri and many parts of Tamil Nadu demanding stringent action on the assailants of Prabhu. Army veteran Col S V Sridhar, Col Udith Kumar, Lt Col Palraj, Maj Madan Kumar and Lt Raman were among the scores of ex-servicemen who took part in the fast following which the BJP members and the ex-servicemen took out a candlelight procession and submitted a memorandum to Governor R N Ravi.

The BJP's fast agitation was also to condemn the attack on the residence of party's Scheduled Castes wing chief 'Tada' Periyasamy. Office-bearers of the party, addressing party workers condemned the ruling DMK regime for the killing of the soldier and for the attack on party leader Periyasamy. The candlelight procession was taken out from Omandurar government hospital on arterial Anna Salai to the War memorial near the Marina beach, a distance of about 2 km.

"Along with veterans of the Indian Armed Forces who spent their lives in the service of our nation, brothers & sisters of @BJP4TamilNadu, sat on a one-day fast in solidarity with the bereaving family of Lance Naik Prabhu, who was brutally murdered by a DMK councillor," Annamalai said in a tweet. "The people had turned in large numbers to show their dissent against the @arivalayam govt for the blatant misgovernance in a candle march towards the war memorial," he said in another tweet.

In a series of tweets, the BJP chief alleged that the DMK government is turning TN into a lawless state and that the "Chief Minister was busy in misguiding people from pertinent issues." "It is unfortunate that the DMK continues to maintain staunch silence on Lance Naik Prabhu's death. People guarding the borders & people who stand by them in times of need are attacked, and the Tamil Nadu Police continue to be a mute spectator to the anarchy of the DMK government," he said.