NEW DELHI, Nov 11: A respected Indian newspaper on Tuesday asked the government to send troops to guard its reporters who are threatened with arrest by the government of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The appeal came after the Tamil Nadu state assembly on Friday ordered the arrest of the chief editor of The Hindu, N. Ram, four of his senior journalists and the editor of another regional publication.

They were targeted after the two publications accused the state government of “rising intolerance towards political opponents”.

Mr Ram said he had written to Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani to deploy federal forces in front of the newspaper’s office and at the homes of the journalists, who were also given sentences of 15 days in prison for writing against the state establishment.

On Monday the supreme court stayed the arrests, saying “every institution, be it legislature, media or judiciary, has to respect other institutions”.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also said lines should be respected.

Mr Vajpayee said he had not spoken on the issue to Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaram, whose assembly ordered the arrests for “breach of privilege”.

The Hindu, one of India’s oldest English-language dailies, exercises enormous clout across southern India and the arrest order had sparked off protests across the country.—AFP