'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.'
Forty one-year-old Arumugam Rajeevan has been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation, providing support or resources to a terrorist outfit and making an asset available to a proscribed entity.
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has debunked international criticism over the treatment of the island nation's Tamil minority population.
The powerful bomb blast is believed to be triggered by a suicide bomber.
India on Friday said it has asked Sri Lanka to take "effective measures" to address the concerns of displaced Tamils, as relations between the two neighbours would hinge on the issue.
'Ram Setu', also known as Adam's bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
From the well-known to the little-known, most faces of Tamil cinema ensured they were present for a cause that has been dominating not only state politics but also national politics, with even a special envoy in the ranks of External Affairs Minister flying in to apprise the Tamil Nadu chief minister of the steps taken by the Centre on the issue.
India on Thursday asked Sri Lanka to move beyond the resettlement of people displaced due to the civil war in the country's north and find a political solution to the long-pending Tamil question.
Sri Lanka has resettled over 1,000 internally displaced Tamils in their towns and villages in the country's war-torn northern region.
India has once again pressed for the devolution of powers to the provinces under the 13th amendment (13A) of the Sri Lankan constitution and the system of provincial councils as a meaningful step towards better representation of the island's Tamil minority.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karunanidhi said, "There is no requirement of joint patrolling at this juncture. The issue of joint patrolling was once discussed and did not find favour with our government due to a number of reasons."
Congress on Sunday decried "maligning" of the Prime Minister and party-led UPA government by pro-Tamil groups in the state over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and expressed confidence that India would vote in favour of the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC.
At least 60 fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Sri Lankan Navy personnel while fishing near Katchatheevu on Thursday, an official from fishermen association said.
Three Sri Lankan sailors and four Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres were killed in a pre-dawn attack by Tamil rebels on a navy outpost in Mannar on Wednesday.The Tigers claimed that the area was brought under their control for a few hours after they captured arms and military gadgets, including a radar equipment."According to the available information, four sea tigers, including their leader Sirimaran, have died in the battle," the Defence Ministry said.
After talks in Oslo, the parties decided to explore a political solution founded on internal self-determination based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka.
The arrest came as the group was departing Point Pedro in the northern Jaffna peninsula, Naval spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said, adding that among the arrested, 38 were men, 28 women and 14 children.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a democratically elected leader who received a massive mandate of 71% of votes, and he owes nothing to Delhi or Washington for staging his political comeback, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Wickremesinghe is the first Sri Lankan president to be elected by Parliament following a vote.
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.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on Saturday witnessed the conditions of tens of thousands of displaced Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka as he appealed to a triumphant government to 'heal the wounds' left by three decades of ethnic conflict. The Secretary General visited the camps in Vavuniya district today, where more than 300,000 people are staying, after escaping from the battle lines between government forces and Tamil Tigers.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday fired Basil Rajapaksa from his post and invited the Opposition parties to join a unity Cabinet to tackle the raging public anger against the hardships caused by the economic crisis.
Taking up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister E K Palaniswami, in a letter, said the state government was "extremely" concerned over such incidents
As India gear up for the T20 World Cup at home, the selectors have backed a squad built on impact, and versatility.
Keen to see the decades-old ethnic crisis resolved, India on Tuesday told Sri Lanka that the "most important" issue before it was to come out with a political solution that fulfills the aspirations of the minority Tamils.
Naval gunboats intercepted the Tiger boats leading to the battle, which lasted for six hours, it said.
the Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
A former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam child soldier-turned-politician was acquitted by a court in Sri Lanka on Wednesday in the 2005 murder case of a senior ethnic Tamil lawmaker at the height of the country's bloody civil war.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday dismissed as "fabricated lies", a report by a leading rights group alleging that its military used rape and other forms of sexual violence to torture suspected Tamil rebels since the end of the island's civil war in 2009.
"It is a huge tragedy and it is unfolding all the time," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the prime minister.
Sri Lankan opposition leaders on Wednesday handed over a letter to a delegation of Members of Parliament from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that is in Colombo, complaining that they were not allowed by the government to visit the relief camps for nearly three lakh displaced Tamils.
Season 3 belongs to Jaideep Ahlawat who, despite the not so well-etched character, owns Rukma and gives the confrontation with Srikant Tiwari the missing edge of the earlier two seasons, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Bringing the latest instance of the arrest of TN fishermen to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Stalin said 12 of them were arrested on Thursday and two mechanised fishing boats were seized by the Lankan Navy.
China said it has suspended the project due to security concerns from a third party.
Sri Lankan authorities have arrested 19 Indian fishermen and seized five boats when they were allegedly fishing in the country's waters. A total of 19 fishermen were arrested north of the Jaffna Delft islet late on Saturday night, navy spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said in Colombo on Sunday.
"It is high time India traded dynasty for meritocracy. This would require fundamental reforms, from imposing legally mandated term limits to requiring meaningful internal party elections, together with a concerted effort to educate and empower the electorate to choose leaders based on merit," Tharoor said.
The South Indian Film Artistes' association -- also known as the Thenindiya Nadigar Sangam -- on Tuesday organised a one-day hunger strike to protest against the alleged atrocities committed against the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
A heavy gunbattle between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels left 28 militants and two security personnel dead in the island nation's embattled north, the defence ministry said on Monday.
If Modi was really keen on Katchatheevu, he could have reclaimed that island during his 10 years in office, he said.
"The LTTE is, perhaps, fighting its last battle and the security forces are continuing their fight to emancipate the country and the people of the north and east from terrorism," Rajapakse said after giving away gallantry awards to the armed forces personnel in Colombo on Thursday.
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.
