Welcoming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statements favouring a negotiated settlement to end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has said the remarks raised hopes of the Centre taking steps to halt Lankan troops' offensive against Tamils in LTTE-held areas.
At an all party meet in Chennai on Tuesday chaired by Chief Minister K Karunanidhi a resolution was adopted that if the central government does not ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka within two weeks, all Members of Parliament from the state would resign. Leaders of the Congress, Communist Party of India and CPI-Marxist were also present at the meet. Opposition parties including the J Jayalalitha-led All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Vaiko-led MDMK.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was injured last month during an aerial raid by Sri Lankan Air Force jets, the government confirmed on Wednesday night.
The incident took place near Sambuddhaloka Viharaya at the fort area, the defence ministry said. Officials said 10 police personnel were killed when the motorbike-ridden suicide bomber from the LTTE hit the bus.
India has mended its stand on Sri Lanka, no longer insisting that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, should lay down arms as a pre-condition for talks with the government in Colombo for a political settlement. Instead of asking the LTTE to lay down the arms, India now wants it to at least agree in principle to lay down the arms as that can pave the way for negotiations with the Sri Lankan government.
With the Sri Lankan forces poised to capture the remaining strongholds of the Lankan Tigers of Tamil Eelam, India on Thursday told Colombo to ensure the safety of the Tamil civilians who are caught in the war zone in the north of the island. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee also asked the LTTE to allow civilians in the areas held by it to cross over to the safe zones of the Sri Lankan government
On January 27, B Muralidhar Reddy, a distinguished journalist with The Hindu was taken to the war zone of Mullaithivu, along with other Sri Lankan journalists by the Sri Lankan defence ministry.
A Sri Lanka state transport bus ferried a group of passengers, for first time in last 20 years, from the captured de facto LTTE capital of Kilinochchi.
In its bid to rein in the dreaded suicide squads of LTTE, the Sri Lanka government is offering $93,000 and an overseas job to the rebel suicide bombers who surrender before the authorities.Posters showing the offer were already pasted on walls around Colombo two weeks back, but confusion over it ended on Monday with the government admitting to making the offer of 10 million Sri Lankan rupees for suicide bombers giving themselves up.
The troops, backed by fighter jets, had on Thursday stormed two key rebel bastions near Killinocchi in the island's north after killing 50 guerrillas and injuring 100. The security forces took control of the rebels' Iranamadu Junction on Thursday morning, shortly after capturing the LTTE's strategic Paranthan town.
Airline officials contend that following the recent air-raids by the LTTE, Sri Lanka's air traffic controllers were no longer in full control of the country's airspace.
Providing LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran a ''safe haven'' abroad like Ugandan dictator Idi Amin "has been proposed for sometime", Sri Lanka has said while warning the elusive rebel leader that he won't be able to go past India if he tries to flee the island country.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought extradition of the suspect.
Sri Lankan fighter jets pounded a 'field headquarters' of the LTTE and destroyed at least 35 rebel bunkers as security forces gunned down 64 rebels and lost three of their soldiers.
At least 63 LTTE militants and three security forces personnel were killed in raging ground battles since weekend while Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday shelled a main Sri Lankan military air base linking the country to the embattled north.
A high-level Indian delegation led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan arrived in Colombo on Friday for talks with Sri Lankan leaders amidst intense speculation on the nature of the visit, kept under wraps. The presence of Defence Secretary Vijay Singh in the delegation set tongues in political circles wagging in the backdrop of reports that with no let up in LTTE attacks Sri Lanka would like military assistance from India.
Air Force spokesperson Wing Commander Andi Wijesoriya said the target has been a regular visiting place of Prabhakaran. Fighter pilots have confirmed that the target was accurately hit, he added.
Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.
The rebels said that the government was planning a large-scale military offensive against them.
At least 21 people, including seven women, were killed and 47 injured today when a powerful bomb ripped through a packed bus near the Sri Lankan capital. The explosion occurred at 7.35am in Moratuwa, 12 km from Colombo, a military spokesman said and blamed the LTTE for the attack.
At least seven persons including four women were killed and 72 others injured when a bomb, planted by suspected LTTE terrorists, ripped through a packed train near the Colombo on Monday.
A piece of torso of a person and diving equipments were found floating near the drowned Sri Lankan Naval ship, suggesting the handiwork of a suicide bomber in destruction of the vessel last week, an official said on Monday.
The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its troops killed more than 100 Tamil Tigers while it lost 43 soldiers, with another 33 missing in action. The LTTE, however, claimed that at least 100 Sri Lankan troops were killed in the clashes and put their own losses at 16.
Vice-Admiral Damle said the LTTE, which was facing an 'almost impenetrable situation' on the Tamil Nadu coast, was now beginning to shift its drug trafficking, arms running and other activities to the Kerala coast, especially in the Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi stretch.
Over 34 Tamil Tiger rebels and nine soldiers have been killed in a series of gun battles in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials said in Colombo on Tuesday. Reacting to the stepped-up battles between the security forces and Tiger rebels, Nanayakkara said, "Since the LTTE has been incurring heavy losses in the recent weeks; they wanted to make their presence felt and are resorting to attacks."
The principal of a government polytechnic college has been arrested for defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi by featuring his photo in the college magazine under a list of "negative faces" with Adolf Hitler, George W Bush, Osama bin Laden and a few others.
"Prabhakaran will never agree for anything and not a single country in the world will support his demand for a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka," V Anandasangaree, former lawmaker and president of Tamil United Liberation Front told media persons in London on Sunday night.
Troops and the LTTE exchanged fire along a de facto border in the Wanni region on Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
According to a Pro-LTTE website, the rebels claimed they thwarted an attack from the Sri Lankan Armed Forces at Muhamalai in Jaffna peninsula on Saturday morning.
Over 52 militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been killed in gunbattles between security forces and the rebels in Sri Lanka's embattled north, where the Army captured a portion of the rebel-held Thampane area.
Thirty-five Tiger rebels were killed in clashes with the army in Mannar, while two other rebels were killed in Jaffna when they attempted to breach a security forces' defence line.
The elite Special Forces attacked LTTE formations in the northern district of Vavuniya on Saturday, killing 11 in one place and two in another.
The security forces captured and destroyed the four bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the jungles of Thoppigala in Batticaloa district during an offensive late Friday night and early Saturday.
Sri Lanka has refused to cooperate with a United Nations investigation into alleged war crimes during the final phase of the country's civil war, saying it will not subject itself to the jurisdiction of the top rights body.
The BJP on Wednesday asked the Centre to enact an effective law to curb incidents of terrorism, which it claimed was on the rise ever since UPA government assumed office.
Human Rights Watch said that abductions of minors continued and children are continually being drafted as soldiers by both the Karuna faction and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam set off the mine, planted near an electricity transformer, targetting a bus taking constables home on leave, a ministry spokesman said.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday expressed satisfaction over External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court issued the order following a petition filed by a political activist group, Centre for Policy Alternatives, which argued that Thursday's action was a violation of basic human rights.
The pro-LTTE MPs told him about the "pathetic and deplorable" condition of Tamil people in the island nation.
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