22 ex-envoys back France amid Islamist protests (Revised)

New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS) A group of 22 former Indian Ambassadors expressed solidarity with the country, saying the recent brutal terrorist attacks in France by Islamic fundamentalists have implications for all democratic countries based on pluralism and rule of law."India has rightly expressed solidarity with the French president personally and France as a country with which our ties have remarkably deepened strategically in recent years," the statement from the Indian Ambassador's Group read.An earlier story had inadvertently attributed a statement to the former envoys which suggested that a handful of Muslims had a different agenda as they had not protested against the beheading of Samuel Paty, a teacher in France.Ajay Swarup, Ajit Kumar, Amar Sinha, Anil K. Trigunayat, Ashok Kumar, Bhaswati Mukherjee, J.S. Sapra, Kanwal Sibal, Laxmi Puri, Mohan Kumar, O.P. Gupta, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Prakash Shah, Ruchi Ghanshyam, Satish Chand Mehta, Shashank, Shyamla B. Cowshik, Suresh Kumar Goel, Veena Sikri, Vidya Sagar Verma, Virender Gupta and Yogesh Gupta are the 22 former Ambassadors who signed the statement.
--IANS arm/