COLOMBO — Hundreds of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks and lay supporters protested opposite the Indian embassy on Tuesday, condemning attacks on two Sri Lankan monks and other pilgrims in southern India while the government told its citizens to be cautious when visiting there. The protest in the capital, Colombo, came a day after a monk on a pilgrim came under a mob attack at the Central Chennai railway station in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, while another monk who was studying there was assaulted at an archaeological site in Tamil Nadu during the weekend. The External Affairs ministry asked Sri Lankans to “exercise caution” when visiting Tamil Nadu. The ministry said it had “lodged strong protests with the Indian government” over these incidents, which it said were carried out by people trying to harm Sri Lanka's relations with India. Sri Lankan newspapers blamed the supporters and sympathizers of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels for these attacks. Tamil Nadu is home to 60 million Tamils who have ancestral links with Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils. The Indian Tamils have often expressed anger against Sri Lanka's Sinhalese-dominated government, which has been accused of abusing Tamils during the country's civil war. Sri Lanka's civil war ended in 2009 after the government forces crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels who have been fighting to create a separate state for the Tamils. More than 250,000 Sri Lankans visit Tamil Nadu each year on business, leisure, education and pilgrimage. — AP
