French troops kill 2 Indians in Africa
Published: 27th March 2013 09:09 AM | Last Updated: 27th March 2013 09:09 AM | A+A A-
Two Indians were killed and six others seriously injured on Monday when French troops shot at their vehicles while trying to protect the Central African Republic government’s hold over the Bangui airport that was being overrun by armed rebels. Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted that the two deceased Indians are Karna Bahadur from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and Krishanaya Mogaveera from Mangalore, Karnataka.
Soon after the incident, French President Francois Hollande wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is in South Africa to attend the BRICS summit, expressing regret for the “tragic” incident.
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also called up his Indian counterpart A K Antony to share grief and to assure him of a high-level inquiry into the events that led to the offensive on the vehicles in which the Indians were travelling.
Bangui, the capital of the landlocked Central African Republic, has been overrun by a rebel group in the ongoing civil war in the country.
Hollande assured Singh that the injured were under the care of French medical teams.