Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday said her party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will take continuous steps to secure a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils if voted back to power in the upcoming state assembly elections, reported PTI. She also promised to seek from the Centre dual citizenship for Lankan refugees living in the state so that they can get work easily.

“So as to enable Sri Lankan Tamils live with full freedom and self-respect and to attain a separate Eelam [Tamil homeland], continuous steps will be taken,” Jayalalithaa said at a public rally in Tiruchirappalli. She said that she has been constantly asking for an independent, international inquiry into the war crimes committed against Tamils in the island nation. Attacking opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi, she said he has not only betrayed the community in the state but also the those in Sri Lanka by "staging dramas over the issue like a three-hour hunger strike" against their interest.