Fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government announced his death, a veteran Tamil nationalist leader claimed in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, on Monday that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, is doing well and said a conducive atmosphere prevails for him to appear now.
The Sri Lankan team, which arrived hours after a delegation of its security experts had checked in, was taken directly from the old Karachi airport tarmac to the VIP lounge amid heavy security.
India on Friday disapproved of a top Sri Lankan official's reported remark about it regarding terrorism in that country, saying the armed conflict there was a result of Colombo denying rights to Tamils there.
In a bid to strengthen Indo-Sri Lankan defence cooperation, warships and navy personnel of the two countries have begun a joint sea exercise off the western coast, to train Lankan cadets on-board Indian warships."As many as 95 Sri Lankan officers under Trainees and 141 Indian officers under Trainees, cadets and midshipman participated in the exercises," Sri Lankan Navy spokesperson Commander D K P Dasanayake said. The exercises and training would continue till Thursday.
The anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Sunday continued to occupy the residences of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, a day after they stormed into the premises and set on fire one of the buildings protesting over the nation's severe economic crisis even as the island nation is still in the dark about the embattled President's whereabouts.
It is time the political leaderships in this country arrived at a common ground over issues of foreign and security policy concerns. There has to be a greater communication between the government and the Opposition leaderships for the nation to present a unified face against the rest of the world, advises N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Indian Peace Keeping Force was deployed for 32 months in the island nation.
Launching a scathing attack on the Centre for its "callous and adamant attitude" in training Sri Lankan defence personnel in India, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday demanded that New Delhi desist from such acts and that they be sent back to their county immediately.
Defence sources said at least six soldiers were feared dead and 60 others wounded in the battle. However, there was no independent confirmation of the army casualties.
A Chinese research ship on Wednesday docked at Sri Lanka's Colombo port, officials in Colombo said, amid security concerns raised by the US over its visit.
Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff Sarath Fonseka, the architect of the military offensive that led to the annihilation of the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, quit his post on Thursday and is widely tipped to be the opposition candidate for the presidential elections next year.
India was training armed forces personnel from Sri Lanka in different states of the country including Tamil Nadu as part of exchanges with neighbouring countries, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Sri Lankan security forces destroyed four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam bunkers as they continued to lay siege to the crucial Kilinochchi town and 35 Tamil Tigers and six security personnel were killed in fierce clashes in the northern region, the army said on Monday.
The jets destroyed two camps of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Mullaitivu district
General Sarath Fonseka may have violated the official secrets act by accusing Sri Lankan Defence Secretary of ordering the killing of surrendering Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders, a presidential legal adviser has said.
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.
'With butterflies in our stomachs, but confident of our mission, we took off for Jaffna on the morning of 24 July 1987.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe recalls a conversation with Air Vice Marshal Harpal Singh Ahluwalia (retd), then a wing commander and mission leader for the clandestine operation.
"The air strikes were a sequel to the constant mortar attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam against the forward defence line of the Army," a statement from the ministry said.
India on Monday strongly condemned the "derogatory" article against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa appearing in the Sri Lankan defence ministry website, as the controversy rocked Parliament with an agitated All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam demanding a resolution to denounce it.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Rajapaksa and said he looks forward to further deepen relations between the two nations.
US Under Secretary Victoria Nuland, who met Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, raised concerns about the upcoming visit of the Chinese research vessel 'SHI YAN 6'
Two Tigers were killed in a ground attack on Monday evening in the Vavuniya region where two soldiers were also wounded.
A Chinese Navy warship capable of surveillance has docked at the Colombo port, nearly a year after another spy vessel berthed at a strategic port in the country and raised concerns in India.
The NIA had filed the case suo motu on July 8 last year and arrested the 13 persons from Tamil Nadu.
Calling the reports of ceasefire as a media illusion, the Sri Lankan government said it has offered no such statement.
Polls opened at 7 am local time and would close at 5 pm with some 12,845 polling stations being set up throughout the country for 15.9 million voters, who will choose a successor to President Maithripala Sirisina.
Sri Lankan forces eliminated surrendering Tiger leaders on the orders of the defence secretary who had instructed that 'all Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leaders must be killed,' ex-army chief General Sarath Fonseka has claimed, prompting the government to describe it as a 'great betrayal.'
Stepping up the momentum of their advance to capture the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold of Kilinochchi, the Lankan troops on Tuesday claimed to have killed scores of rebels after smashing through a string of LTTE bunkers. Government troops of the 53 Division, advancing from Kilaly village near Jaffna, carried out the ambush in the morning, a defence ministry official said
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy has been invited by Sri Lankan Army to deliver a lecture on the peace process in the country.
Worried that the LTTE's defeat at the hands of Sri Lankan military would crush his dream of a separate Tamil homeland, slain LTTE chief V Prabhakaran had made a last ditch attempt to escape to the jungles in the north by breaching the Sri Lankan defence lines during the final phase of the war.
As many as 18 soldiers were killed in Puloly in two similar attacks early in December.
An "offensive" article on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa published on the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry website with an accompanying graphic image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked up a storm in India which acted with "alacrity" on Friday to force the island nation to tender an unqualified apology.
After smashing through main outer defences of the crucial city of Kilinochchi, Sri Lankan Army today captured Vannerikulam town and encircled Nachchikudha, the main sea Tiger base, after fierce fighting which left 33 soldiers dead. Apparently, stepping up their offensive to capture LTTE headquarters, government troops overnight and this Monday morning launched a fierce offensive to capture the Vannerikulam town for which the Tigers put up a stiff resistance.
Several people succumbed to their injuries sustained in the blasts, taking the death toll to 359.
Defence Secretary Fernando said Subathran was gunned down by sniper fire in Jaffna.
The LTTE has been conducting multi-pronged war exercises at the facility when it was hit by the jets, the defence ministry said. "The LTTE's Kilinochchi leadership is yet to reveal losses," the army said citing intercepted communication.
Sri Lanka is currently processing a request by China to allow a research ship to dock in the country, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday, a year after a visit by a Chinese spy vessel to the Island nation raised security concerns in India.
The protesting fishermen have refused to accept the body of the fisherman unless a central minister visits the island and gives them an assurance that such incidents would not happen again, Rameswaram Fishermen Association President S Emiret said.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Meanwhile, a pro-rebel website said troops were amassing heavy weapons along the de facto border in the island's north and there were long range attacks.
