People of Tamil Nadu are not hostile to Sri Lankans

Deputy High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in India Anura Rajakaruna

The team leader of the pilgrim group called me around 6 pm on Sunday (September 2). Then I received a call from Colombo. It was the Deputy Minister of External Affairs, Neomal Perera. He said a group of Lankan pilgrims in Trichy needed protection.

When I received the calls I immediately contacted the Trichy Police Commissioner. He made arrangements to provide police protection to the Poondi Matha shrine and the Lankan pilgrims within about 20 minutes. The protesters had shouted slogans and demanded that the Lankan pilgrims be sent back. The leader who was in contact with me informed that there were a large number of children and women in the group. I contacted the External Ministry and sought their advice. Then I inquired from SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Air if there were flights coming and if seats were available to bring them back to Colombo. The Government was able to arrange a special flight with Mihin Air to bring the pilgrims back.

Once it was settled, we weighed the possibility of taking the pilgrims to Chennai airport but later decided that it was too risky to take them that far by road. The group was flown out from Trichy, from the same place they arrived in.

Two officers from the Chennai mission were dispatched to accompany the buses to Trichy airport. It was about a six hour journey from Chennai to Trichy, by the time the officers reached Poondi Matha shrine the pilgrims had taken off to Velankanni.

Then the two officers went to Velankanni and from their they accompanied the buses along with the police. It is about a half an hour drive to the airport, some buses came under attack but the police was able to control the situation and get the pilgrims safely to the airport.

The group reached the airport on Monday afternoon. They stayed at the airport till 10.30pm the following day to board the flight and come back to Colombo. Mihin Lanka and SriLankan staff at the airport helped our officers to look after the pilgrims. ”The people of Tamil Nadu are not hostile to Sri Lankans. Only a very small segment is acting in this manner. I think it is very important to differentiate this section from the vast majority of the Tamil Nadu population”, the Deputy High Commissioner said.

- MF