Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa hopes to raise the issue of Sri Lankans being targeted in India`s Tamil Nadu state when he undertakes a visit to India later this month.
During a meeting with newspaper editors on Friday, Rajapaksa said he was satisfied with a response given by the Indian government following the incidents which took place in Tamil Nadu, reported Xinhua.
A group of over 100 Sri Lankan pilgrims were mobbed and later attacked while they were visiting a church in Tamil Nadu this week.
The mob was angry over allegations that the Sri Lankan military was involved in human rights abuses targeting minority Tamils in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Rajapaksa told the newspaper editors that the incident targeting the Sri Lankan pilgrims was instigated by a small group of people in Tamil Nadu.
Some Tamil political parties in Tamil Nadu have been protesting against the upcoming visit to India by the Sri Lankan President.
Rajapaksa, however, said that he will go ahead with his scheduled visit to India to attend a ceremony and if he gets a chance to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he will then raise the Tamil Nadu issue at that meeting.
The government had issued a travel warning to Sri Lankans visiting Tamil Nadu following the attack on the pilgrims this week.
All 184 pilgrims were later flown back to Sri Lanka.
IANS
