India assures safety of Sri Lankan visitors

     India on Thursday assured Sri Lanka it would continue to take all possible measures to ensure the safety, security and well-being of Sri Lankan visitors to India, including to the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The outgoing Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Ashok K. Kantha told  the Mahanayake Theros of Malwatte and Asgiriya Chapters and Mahanayaka Maha Thero of Ramanya Chapter that recent incidents targeting some Sri Lankan monks in Tamil Nadu were isolated incidents.

Kantha said that the state government of Tamil Nadu had taken immediate action to identify and prosecute the miscreants responsible for these incidents and that the government of India, in consultation with the concerned state governments, had also taken and would continue to take all possible measures to ensure the safety, security and well-being of Sri Lankan visitors to India, including Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu has been agitating over alleged human rights abuses committed in Sri Lanka and has been calling on the Indian government to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to start an international investigation into the allegations.

Two Buddhist preletes who were visiting Tamil Nadu had been assaulted recently by groups outraged over allegations of war crimes committed during the final stages of the war between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tiger rebels before the rebels were defeated four years ago.