KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — Attackers who assaulted the Sri Lankan High Commissioner at KLIA were hoping to find former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, according to The Indian Express.

The newspaper cited source in Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry as claiming that the attacker approached Ibrahim Sahib Ansar to obtain Rajapaksa’s location in Malaysia then.

"The assaulters came and asked Ansar about the whereabouts of ‘war criminal Rajapaksa.’ When he replied that they should go and find out from security officers, they beat him and left him bleeding,” the foreign ministry official was quoted as saying.

Fifteen men followed Ibrahim into a restricted area in the airport, where he and an aide were later assaulted.

Five people have been arrested over the incident and police are looking for another four men believed to be involved.

A protest was held against Rajapaksa when he attended the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Local Indian and Tamil groups consider the former Sri Lankan president a war criminal for his actions during his country’s civil war.