Demonstration against Rahul Gandhi's Tamil Nadu visit

COIMBATORE: 91 members of the

Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam

(TPDK) were arrested in Coimbatore on Saturday when they staged a

black flag

demonstration against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over the Sri Lankan Tamils' issue. The incident occurred hours before Gandhi's visit to the city to address an election rally with DMK MP Kanimozhi.

A total of 91 TPDK workers, including 15 women, assembled near the city bus stand and protested against the "failure" of the previous Congress-led UPA government to safeguard the Sri Lankan Tamils during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, police said.

Led by TPDK General Secretary K Ramakrishnan, the activists raised slogans against the Congress, accusing it of having remained "a mute spectator", when thousands of Tamils were killed in the guise of eliminating the LTTE.