Foreign secretary meets African students; assures safety, security

New Delhi, May 30: Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar on Monday met a group of African students here and assured them of the safety and security of the community after a string of attacks on African tiols in India. “Continuing outreach to African community. Foreign secretary meets a group of African students,” exterl affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted. “Foreign secretary to students: Ensuring safety and security of foreign students is an article of faith for us,” he added. The meeting between Jaishankar and the students came even as several African students staged a protest at Jantar Mantar here against increasing attacks on them and demanded that the Indian government act swiftly to stop such incidents.

“We want the government’s support as the incidents of attacks on people from African continent are increasing in the city. The Indian government needs to ensure safety of African tiols and act swiftly on such incidents,” said a protestor at Jantar Mantar.

On Monday, the family member of a Congolese tiol, M.K. Olivier, who was killed on May 20 over a minor altercation arrived in India to take back the mortal remains. They were met at the airport by a senior exterl affairs ministry official. The spate of rising attacks on African tiols has caused outrage among the community, several thousands of who study in India. The African envoys had last week threatened to boycott the Africa Day event over the murder of Congolese tiol Olivier. (IANS)