Send back Lankan defence personnel: Jayalalithaa to Prime Minister

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms Jayalalithaa has asked the Prime Minister to halt an ongoing training programme to two Sri Lankan defence personnel at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington near Ooty. In a strongly worded letter, Ms Jayalalithaa said two Lankan defence personnel Major Dissanayaka Mohottalalage Vengra and Captain Hewawasam Kandaudage from the Sri Lankan Army and Navy are on a nine-month programme at the Wellington training centre and wants them to be immediately sent back. She says the training "has been mischievously concealed from my government, showing scant regard for the views of my government as well as for the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu."


Last month, Ms Jayalalithaa had opposed a similar training to nine Sri Lankan Air Force personnel at the Tambaram Air Force Station in Chennai. As a result, the Centre had moved them to the Yelahanka Airforce Station in Bengaluru so that they could complete the training. Jayalalithaa terms it as "not proper" and adds "instead of sending these personnel back to Sri Lanka, the Government of India exhibited excessive enthusiasm and concern for these personnel". Ms Jayalalithaa had then described it as "anti- Tamil" and said "Tamils want action against Sri Lanka for war crimes and they will not accept this" and that "Tamils even suspect whether the Centre is acting against them".