Sri Lankan pilgrims had come under attack in Chennai yesterday by goons describing themselves as ‘black tigers,’ family members of the Sri Lankans said. The Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission in Chennai had transferred the pilgrims to a hotel in a safe area. 3 of the 84 had been injured, their T-shirts ripped off and burnt in Perambur late Wednesday night.
The police arrested three members of the Naam Tamzhilar movement, Raj Kumar, 40, an area secretary of Naam Tamzhilar at New Washermenpet, Mahendran, 25, and Karthikeyan, 38, of Vysarpadi, in connection with the incident.
“84 pilgrims from Elpitiya in Sri Lanka’s Galle district had come to India on July 17 on a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya and were scheduled to return to Sri Lanka on Friday. After visiting Kasi and Rameshwaram, the pilgrims returned to the Sri Lanka Maha Bodhi Centre building on Keneth Lane in Egmore where they were staying.
Since the rooms were full, they were put up in a lodge in Perambur,” said a monk at the society. He said the pilgrims would be sent back home safely on Friday. “It is humiliating to be treated like this in India. We dream of going back with good memories but unfortunately this incident has put paid to that,” a pilgrim said.
An attack on the Maha Bodhi Centre on January 24, 2011, left several people injured, the Deccan Chronicle reports.