Chennai:
Sri Lankan pilgrims traveling in buses were targeted twice today by protesters in Tamil Nadu.
The convoy of five buses was headed to the Trichy airport to board a special flight home, when a mob pelted stones and smashed their windows.
Police have however said that no one was injured in the attack and that all pilgrims have reached the airport.
(Sri Lankan pilgrims attacked in Tamil Nadu: 10 developments)Earlier today, the group of nearly 180 Sri Lankans were stopped by protesters after they left the famous Velankanni Christian shrine, 20 kilometres from Trichy.
"We got reports that some people followed the pilgrims group, intimidated, abused and even attacked them with stones," Sri Lanka Deputy High Commissioner RKMA Rajakaruna told the Press Trust of India.
The Sri Lankans also faced protests yesterday during their visit to another shrine near Thanjavur.
Yesterday, Sri Lanka issued a travel advisory asking its citizens not to visit Tamil Nadu until further notice in the wake of "increasing number of instances of intimidation" of Sri Lankans in the state. India's Foreign Affairs Ministry said this afternoon - even as news of the vandalised buses came in- that it had consulted the state government and "will continue to take all measures to ensure the safety, security and well-being of Sri Lankan dignitaries and visitors to India, including to Tamil Nadu."
Over the weekend, in a much-criticised move, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa ordered that college and school football teams visiting her state should be sent back to Sri Lanka immediately.
Like her party, opposition members including the DMK, which is a member of the ruling coalition at the Centre, have attacked the union government for allowing Sri Lankan defence personnel to be trained in India. DMK chief M Karunanidhi also objected today to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit to India. "It is not acceptable to us that he who is responsible for the killing of lakhs of Tamils is accorded a special welcome" in India, he said.
(
Sri Lankan President's visit not acceptable: Karunanidhi)All Tamil Nadu political parties have taken a strong stand against the Sri Lankan defence forces who have been accused of atrocities against the local Tamil minority during the last stretch of the island's civil war, which ended in 2009.
(With Inputs from PTI)