DHAKA: Hundreds of activists protested in the Sri Lankan capital on Tuesday against India’s new prime minister Narendra Modi for urging the island to step up post-war reconciliation with ethnic minority Tamils.

The pro-government protesters waved placards that read ‘Modi don’t be foolish’ and shouted anti-Modi slogans outside the Indian High Commission, the de facto embassy, in Colombo over the Prime Minister’s comments made last month.

The protesters accused Modi, who swept to power with a landslide election win in May, of interfering in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs.

The activists, led by the National Freedom Front, a coalition partner in president Mahinda Rajapakse’s government, also targeted the chief minister of India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, Jayalalitha Jayaram.

BDST: 1725 HRS, JUNE 10, 2014