Send back Lankan IAF personnel, Jaya tells PM

Fuming at more Sri Lankan security personnel being trained in Indian Defence Institutions, AIADMK Supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha on Monday urged the Centre to send all of them, including the nine airmen shifted to IAF Bangalore, back to Sri Lanka immediately.

Reiterating her plea in another letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Jayalalitha said after the shifting of nine Sri Lankan air force personnel from IAF Tambaram near here to the Yelahanka Air Force base in Bangalore, she had come to learn, to her shock, that more personnel are to visit India for training.

While Air Marshal Jegath Julanga Diaz of the Sri Lankan Air Force and Rear Admiral S Ranasinghe of the Sri Lankan Navy were reportedly undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, New Delhi, she said 25 other trainees from various countries have also arrived at Coonoor to visit the Defence Service Staff College, Wellington in Ooty (TN), “as part of their training programme”.

Jayalalitha said “this reveals the utter disrespect shown to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu.”  The people were “outraged” by this “callous and adamant attitude”, she said.