Indian Activists Protest Outside US Embassy Against Diplomat Arrest

New Delhi, Dec 18, IRNA -- Several activists protested this afternoon outside the American Embassy here over the alleged ill-treatment meted out to Indias Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade by the US authorities. The protestors from different organization's, besides a group of DU students, raised anti-America slogans and demanded immediate apology from the US authorities during their protest outside the embassy in the diplomatic enclave in Chanakyapuri locality of central Delhi. They also insisted that the government should take more stern steps to register India's protest against the mistreatment of its diplomat in the United States. Meanwhile, over 50 Congress workers today staged a protest outside the US Consulate General campus in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu state, demanding an apology from the US government for the way in which Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was arrested, pti reported. They gathered in front of the US Consulate General on Cathedral Road around 2 PM and raised slogans against the US government for the manner in which the diplomat was arrested. We condemn the manner in which the Indian diplomat was arrested by the US government on behalf of the Congress party. We demand that the US government tender an apology to India, Congress leader K Selvaperunthagai told reporters outside the US diplomatic mission campus. The government had yesterday announced a series of steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges, including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the Embassy, including for liquor. Security barricades around the US Embassy were also removed by the Delhi Police here. 39-year-old Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody last week on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court./end