3,000 Rally Against India’s Airlift of Aid to Sri Lanka
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — More than 3,000 demonstrators, led by dozens of Buddhist monks, rallied Tuesday to protest India’s sending of relief supplies to Sri Lanka’s war-torn Jaffna Peninsula.
Observers said it was the largest anti-Indian rally ever held on the island.
The demonstration apparently was called by Galaboda Gnanissara, a prominent Buddhist priest.
The demonstrators converged on the Indian high commissioner’s heavily guarded residence, known as India House, carrying signs reading “Bully Boy India” and “Hands Off Sri Lanka.” They clapped and screamed but remained peaceful.
Gnanissara read a petition condemning as a “despicable act” the violation of Sri Lankan airspace by Indian military planes that dropped food and medicine over the Jaffna Peninsula last week. The area is a stronghold for the predominately Hindu Tamil guerrillas who are fighting against the majority Buddhist Sinhalese. The Tamils want a separate state in northern and eastern Sri Lanka.
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