India, which abstained during the vote on a strong resolution against Sri Lanka's human rights practices at the UNHRC, on Tuesday urged Colombo to fulfill its commitments on the devolution of political authority, to carry forward the process of reconciliation and address the aspirations of the Tamil community in the island nation.
Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers are subjecting ethnic Tamils in their northern stronghold, Vanni, to forced recruitment, abusive forced labor, and restrictions on movement that place their lives at risk, the Human Rights Watch said in a report.
India on Tuesday assured Tamils displaced by the 30-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka's north of all possible assistance in their resettlement process, as Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao visited the war-ravaged towns and interacted with locals.
SriLankan Airlines on Tuesday slashed by half, its flights on the Colombo-Chennai sector in view of the attacks against Sri Lankan nationals in Tamil Nadu.
There was no word from the Tigers about the latest clashes or about the possible casualties on their side.\n\n
Over 4,000 people have died since December 2005 in a new wave of fighting despite a truce which is in place since February 2002.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon arrived in Colombo on Monday to hold crucial talks on the controversial 13th amendment on devolution of power in the Tamil-dominated northern province and a trilateral maritime security treaty with Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The vote on a critical resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva has been postponed to Tuesday, as Colombo stepped up efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting which is being seen as an acid test for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
A group of failed Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have won the right to stay in the United Kingdom after the high court in London blocked their deportation scheduled for Thursday.
The Sri Lankan cartoon faux pas has revived the slackening pan-Tamil mood in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is currently facing public demand for his resignation over his mishandling of the economic crisis, is the man who ruthlessly ended Sri Lanka's nearly 30-year civil war with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.
Since major fighting between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam resumed in 2006, Sri Lankan security forces and pro-government armed groups have abducted hundreds of individuals, many of whom are feared dead. Under international law, a State commits an enforced disappearance when it takes a person into custody and denies holding them or disclosing their whereabouts.
The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday adopted a resolution against Sri Lanka's rights record, in a setback to Colombo, which made determined efforts to garner international support ahead of the voting.
Rajapaksa's five-day visit to India assumes significance as his tenure as Sri Lanka's president from 2005 to 2016 saw expansion of China's footprints in the Indian Ocean island nation, triggering concerns in India.
The fuel cost will come down if rockets are launched from Kulasekarapattinam as they will have a straight trajectory and need not have to avoid Sri Lanka, which is being done by rockets flown from Sriharikota.
Tamil Tigers agree to peace talks with Sri Lankan government
The army attributed the killings to factional fighting within the LTTE.
Expressing unhappiness over India's stand on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Tuesday said the Tamil community expects New Delhi to extend its support to their 'national aspirations', even as it renewed its call for a ceasefire with Colombo. The Tamil Tigers also refused to lay down arms for resuming political dialogue with the Sri Lankan government to resolve the 30-year-old ethnic conflict.
The LTTE opened the sluice gates freeing water to some 15,000 farmer families downstream following a request from peace broker Norway.
The claim came a day after the Tiger rebels blew up an army bus in Colombo, killing one soldier, and overran a naval base where they claimed 35 sailors died.
Sri Lankan Navymen on Monday detained 14 fishermen from Tamil Nadu for allegedly fishing in their waters but freed them hours later on sighting an Indian Navy vessel near the International Maritime Boundary Line.
India should reach out to Sri Lanka and not push it into the dragon's arms, says Ganesh Nadar
While Delhi was set to host the opening Test against South Africa from November 14-18, it will now host the second Test against West Indies starting October 10.
Despite claiming that it has freed all Tamil civilians this week, Sri Lanka is still holding over 11,000 Tamil prisoners, including children without charge in closely guarded 'rehabilitation centres'.
It was Prime Minister Modi's first such virtual bilateral engagement with a leader of a neighbouring country. For Rajapaksa, it was the first diplomatic engagement with a leader of a foreign country after he was sworn in as prime minister.
In a letter to Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, the LTTE said it was committed to a negotiated settlement to the war, but demanded that progress be made before proceeding.
'Karur could still impact Jana Nayagan's box-office success if Vijay and the TVK do not get their act together,' points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
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
He clarified that the government is not going to help the LTTE "as it is a terrorist organisation responsible for assassination of an Indian Prime Minister and not even apologised for it."
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.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi on Tuesday asked the United Nations and the international community, including India, to initiate steps for the formation of a separate Tamil nation within Sri Lanka for a lasting solution to ethnic strife as the island nation's measures for welfare of minority Tamils are not credible.'
The LTTE said their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran bestowed the title of 'Mamanithar,' or great man, on Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Raviraj, 44, who was shot dead in Colombo on Friday.
The NIA had alerted the island nation that ISIS terrorists were planning to carry out strikes there.
A batch of 95 Tamil women soldiers of the Sri Lanka army held their passing out parade at the security force Headquarters in the former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam stronghold of Kilinochchi in the north.
Asserting that Lankan military operations in Tamil-dominated northern areas were aimed at liberating the region from 'fascist and dictatorial control of LTTE terrorists' Colombo asked India not to be influenced by the 'malicious propaganda' of Tiger sympathisers.
Police Special Task Force commandos repulsed an attack against their Pullumalai base on Saturday morning and inflicted heavy losses on the guerrillas, an STF official said.
'The war ended in 2009 and I believe the new generation of Tamils don't know what was going on there.' 'I felt it was my duty to tell our story.' 'Since 2009, it seems like we are sleeping.'
'If the army says sit we have to sit and if they say stand we have to stand. We were better off under the LTTE.'
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