Coimbatore: Two senior Sri Lankan defence officials on Tuesday left here cutting short their visit to the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in the wake of protests by political parties in Tamil Nadu against imparting training to them by India.
Air Vice Marshal Jegath Julanga Diaz of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Rear Admiral S Ranasinghe of the Lankan Navy left the hotel where they were staying in Coonoor near Wellington at around 5.45 AM and reached here by road escorted by police, a senior police official said.
The two Sri Lankan officials left the city by a special aircraft, the official said. Police and Defence sources, however, refused to reveal their destination.
They had come to Wellington in neighbouring Nilgiris district after undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, New Delhi.
Their departure comes a day after Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and key UPA ally DMK President M Karunanidhi demanded that the two officers be sent back, saying imparting of training to Sri Lankan defence personnel by India hurt the sentiments of Tamils.
In a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jayalalithaa had said people of the state were "frustrated and outraged" with the Centre over its persistence to train the Sri Lankan personnel.
PTI
