Highlighting its tough stand against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Congress on Friday asserted in the Tamil Nadu Assembly that it won't relent till the Tigers' Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, a proclaimed offender in the Rajiv Gandhi Assassination case, was arrested, extradited and prosecuted in India.
Sri Lankan forces on Thursday fought their way to just 800 meters from the area where an estimated 10,000-15,000 Tamil civilians are trapped along with the top leaders of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The government troops pushed into the rebel-held village of Karayamulliavaikkal, advancing over areas heavily mined by the Tigers and fighting off attacks from their suicide bombers. Between 500 to 1,000 hardcore Tiger rebels have formed a last wall of defence.
Virtually rejecting India's appeal to pause hostilities with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam, the Sri Lankan government on Sunday said the conflict will "stop immediately" when the Tamil rebels lay down their arms.
Buoyed by the string of recent military success against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Sri Lanka has once again asked the beleaguered rebels to surrender to facilitate the safe exit of the Tamil civilians.
The Centre on Tuesday termed as "completely baseless" a Sri Lankan newspaper report about existence of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam camps in Tamil Nadu, saying there was no such facility anywhere in the country.
The war against the LTTE, waged by the Mahinda Rajapakse government, may have restored peace in Sri Lanka. But thousands of Tamils paid the price for the so-called victory with their lives, journalist Frances Harrison says in her new book Still Counting the Dead.
'It's so hard to shoot here right now that I can't even imagine what it must be like to live here under these conditions.'
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Facing an onslaught from the international community for alleged war crimes, the Sri Lankan government on Wednesday released a video which they claimed carries "authentic evidence" of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's atrocities during the last phase of the military assault.
"Tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary," Modi tweeted.
Sri Lanka is still wary of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's international network and has voiced concern about the possible re-emergence of pro-LTTE sympathisers despite the military defeat of the Tamil rebels, United States State Department's report has said.
Making his first public appearance after claims of injuries he sustained surfaced over three months ago, Tamil Tiger leader V Prabhakaran paid homage to a slain pro-LTTE lawmaker in the rebel-held Wanni area in northern Sri Lanka. Attired in combat fatigues, Prabhakaran offered floral tributes to K Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance MP who was killed in the blast.
Following a truce between Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and security forces, the International Red Cross has agreed to resume duties from Friday at the vital Omanthai crossing, thus bringing relief to thousands of Tamils in the tiger rebels-dominated Vanni region of Northern Sri Lanka.
Intelligence officials on Wednesday questioned local fishermen to verify reports that their boats had been used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to attack a Sri Lankan Navy vessel.
Best vs Best. Tiger vs Tiger. Star India, BCCI team up for a high decibel campaign for the cricket jamboree.
Vaiko, who was present in the court, said he never sought any leniency.
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.
She also said the country's economy is in a "bad state" and there is a "severe slowdown", to which the Congress has been drawing the government's attention, and the Centre must do something about it.
The blasts -- one of the deadliest attacks in the country's history -- targeted St Anthony's Church in Colombo, St Sebastian's Church in the western coastal town of Negombo and Zion Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday mass were in progress.
Sri Lanka's embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, under immense pressure from the public and the Opposition to quit over the island nation's worst economic crisis, said on Thursday that the abolition of the executive presidency, a move that will curb his powers, will be considered by Parliament.
With India voting against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday said the government and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham should spell out the steps they had taken to prevent attacks on ethnic Tamils during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Amid protests over the alleged brutal killing of slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran's son, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday called off the 20th Asian Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Chennai in July, saying Lankan players have no place in the state.
The Sri Lankan government, which militarily defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009, believes that the outfit's sympathisers and remnants continue to indulge in fund-raising activities in many countries, according to a United States State Department report on terrorism.
"Apart from the way the Tiger leader got killed, the military is also still investigating intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman's death as they could not find his body among top level Tiger leaders," the State-run Sunday Observer said.
Cornered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran, who is still holed up in a small strip of land in embattled north, may flee from the island using a submarine, a top Sri Lankan army official said on Friday."Prabhakaran, who is present in the no-fire zone along with his son Charles Anthony, Tigers' intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Sea Tiger chief Soosai, might have retained a submarine to escape from the island," said an army official.
The Indian government extended the ban on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by another two years on Friday, following intelligence reports that remnants of the Sri Lankan Tamil terror outfit were trying to re-group in Tamil Nadu.
Sri Lanka on Friday dismissed as "baseless" the United Nation's internal report on the failure of the world body to protect Tamil civilians in the final months of country's brutal war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, saying it was an attempt to castigate the nation.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said on Friday said the air strikes carried out by it over capital Colombo killing two people and injuring 54 others were suicide attacks by its elite 'Black Air Tiger' squad.
India reacted strongly to Sri Lanka's allegations of the presence of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam camps in the country on Thursday, and 'categorically' denied the existence of such camps in Tamil Nadu. It has also asked Colombo to 'desist from reacting to speculative and uncorroborated reports.'
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A delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu will be leaving for Sri Lanka tomorrow to get first hand account of the conditions prevailing in the camps housing Lankan Tamil refugees displaced by the war between the island army and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam.
At least 64 people were killed in fierce ground clashes and shelling of a key military base close to a Catholic church by Ta mil Tigers in Sri Lanka's embattled northern region, officials have said.
The United States on Friday asked Sri Lanka to speed up its probe into allegations of rights abuses during the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, resume talks with Tamil parties on power sharing and reduce the role of the military in the former conflict zone.
Perhaps the Indian establishment do not subscribe to the thesis that un-exhibited power is more potent. Innovative diplomacy and statesmanship with no nonsense approach is the need of the hour.
Vowing to pursue its campaign for 'Tamil Eelam', the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has named alleged arms smuggler Selvarasa Pathmathan as its new chief to succeed Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was slain along with the entire rebel leadership in Sri Lanka two months ago. The Tamil separatist outfit, which was virtually annihilated by Sri Lankan troops in May, said it will 'modify' the strategies of its struggle but will continue to work for a 'free Tamil Eelam'.
"The best form of defence is offence," Tiger military spokesperson Rasiah Ilanthirayan remarked hours after the Monday clash at an air force base north of Colombo, which killed around 34 people.
The ATR 72-600 aircraft was accorded water salute as it landed at the Jaffna airport, about 400-km from capital Colombo.
Sri Lanka on Thursday blamed strategic alliances and domestic political issues, an apparent reference to politics in Tamil Nadu, for the UNHRC resolution that was backed by India to censure Colombo for its alleged war crimes during the ethnic conflict with the Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Troops and the LTTE exchanged fire along a de facto border in the Wanni region on Tuesday evening, the ministry said.
