CHENNAI: MDMK Chief Vaiko was on Friday barred from entering Malaysia on the ground that he was a supporter of the banned LTTE and was detained at the airport in Kuala Lumpur to be sent back to Chennai in the night.
Immigration officials told Vaiko, a strong supporter of LTTE, that his entry into the country has been barred, and took him to higher officials for questioning, a party statement said.
The officials, according to the party, told him that he was part of the LTTE in Sri Lanka and that there were a number of cases against him in that country. The officials asked him a number of questions relating to the banned organisation.
The party said that Vaiko told them that he is an Indian citizen and showed his passport but it was not accepted.
Then the officials told him that he was in the list of "persons dangerous" for Malaysia and so he cannot be permitted inside.
This was communicated to Vaiko by Professor Ramaswamy, the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang province.
Vaiko had gone to Malaysia to attend the wedding reception of Ramaswamy's daughter. He had applied for a visa in the Malaysian consulate in Chennai and had got it.
Ramaswamy told Vaiko that efforts of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to get Vaiko into Malaysia failed because the officials told him that orders for the ban on his entry had come from the Deputy Prime Minister's Office.
He was asked to sit in the immigration office and not to move anywhere, the party claimed, adding officials allowed an aide of Vaiko who travelled with him to get him something to eat. But Vaiko refused.
The MDMK leader would be flown back to Chennai by the Malaysian airlines flight in the night. Asked if he was harassed, Vaiko said, "Nothing like that but I have been kept in a place where I cannot meet anybody."
