India refuses entry to mother of slain Tamil leader

The ailing mother of slain Sri Lankan Tamil rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was denied entry to India for medical treatment and was deported immediately on arrival from Malaysia, media reports said Saturday.

Vallipuram Parvathi, who suffers from paralysis, had reportedly reached Chennai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Friday, but police did not permit her to leave the aircraft, the NDTV network reported.
Officials told NDTV that she was deported because the federal government did not give her permission to stay in India.
Elaborate security arrangements had been made for her arrival in Chennai, and the city's senior police officials were present at the airport, where a crowd of 150 people, including leaders of regional political parties supporting Sri Lanka's defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), had gathered.
India has more than 60 million Tamils, most of whom reside in Tamil Nadu, which is separated from northern Sri Lanka by a narrow stretch of sea.
Parvathi had left Sri Lanka for Malaysia after the death of her husband, Tiruvekkdam Velupillai, in military custody in January.
On May 18, the Sri Lankan government announced that LTTE leader Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to escape advancing troops in the northern part of the country. Two days earlier, the government had declared victory over the LTTE in Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war.
At the end of May, Prabhakaran's parents were identified in a camp for displaced people.