India strengthens security to Sri Lankan embassy following attack

The Indian government has assured Sri Lanka that it has taken immediate steps to strengthen security at Sri Lanka's High Commission (embassy) in New Delhi following a stone throwing attack at the embassy on Friday, the Sri Lankan government said Saturday.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Indian Minister for External Affairs S. M. Krishna in a telephone call to his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha Bogollagama Friday evening assured immediate steps have been taken to strengthen security at the embassy and action will be taken against the perpetrators.

Krishna also said the incident is contrary to the cooperative relationship that exists between the two countries and certainly does not reflect the close and warm bilateral friendship that exists between India and Sri Lanka.

A mob comprising 40-50 persons arrived at the main gate of Sri Lanka's embassy in New Delhi Friday afternoon and some of them forcibly entered the embassy causing some damage to its premises.

They had been holding placards in English which read such as "stop killing Tamil Nadu fishermen", officials from the Sri Lankan government said.

The Indian police said the people were Tamils and they were extending support to Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan missions in several Western capitals came under attack by Tamil Tiger supporters earlier this year during the final battles between the government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The rebels were defeated by the troops in May, ending their 30-year-old campaign to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east.