India protests raid on scribes in Colombo

COLOMBO, Jan 6®The Indian High Commission has lodged a complaint with the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry about the Army raid on an Indian journalists’ office-cum-residence here on Saturday. "We have lodged a verbal complaint with the director of publicity in the Foreign Ministry about it," spokesman for the High Commission, Rajesh Sachdeva said.

He quoted the Sri Lankan official as having said that he would check up with the security officials and take necessary action. Sachdeva said the High Commission would also be formally forwarding a letter from the Editor of The Indian Express Shekhar Gupta, to Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, protesting against the raid on the residence of the paper’s Colombo correspondent, Nirupama Subramanian. About a dozen armed soldiers led by a colonel had barged into Nirupama’s residence on Rosmead Place and carried out a search that was later described by the officer as a "random exercise".