Chennai:
Despite Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's strong objection to Sri Lankan defence officers being trained anywhere in India, sources have told NDTV that four officers have landed in Chennai from Colombo and have left for Kolkata by a connecting flight to undergo an AN32 engine fitter course.
The four-month course is to be conducted at Barakpoor, near Kolkata, and is slated to be completed on November 23, this year.
The officers are Propul Sion, aged 33, Jegath Chandrakumar, aged 25, Saraka Sameera, aged 33 and Pinna Godage Nilantha, aged 28.
Just last fortnight, Ms Jayalalithaa, DMK Chief and UPA ally M Karunanidhi as well as other parties in Tamil Nadu like the MDMK and the PMK had protested after Sri Lankan airmen were being trained at the Air Force Station in Tambaram, Chennai. Following their protests, the personnel were shifted out of Tamil Nadu to the Yehalanka station in Bengaluru. Last week, two Lankan officers landed in Coonoor for a conference hosted by the Defence Services Staff College, prompting Ms Jayalalithaa to accuse the Centre of being callous and insensitive to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu in the wake of the complaints of war crimes by the Sinhalese against Tamils in the island nation.