Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now the only person to be protected by the about-4,000-personnel-strong SPG.
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.
"Tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary," Modi tweeted.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam led by its supremo V Prabhakaran had aspired to carve out a big Tamil elam state extending from near Colombo to the southern part of Sri Lanka, the island nation's top defence official has said.
"The unrest in Sri Lanka was triggered off only because the Tamils of the island were relegated, post-independence, to the status of secondary citizens in their own homeland. Decimation of the LTTE or the killings of its leaders will not wipe away the injustice meted out to this large community which had its roots in Sri Lanka," she said
Sri Lankan government on Wednesday night decided to formally ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a move signalling end of prospects of peace talks with the Tamil Tigers against whom the security forces have launched a major offensive. The decision to ban the outfit with effect from midnight on Wednesday was taken at an emergency Cabinet meeting chaired by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This is the second time that Vaiko had been arrested for supporting the banned outfit. He was arrested under POTA by the previous All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government for speaking in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
A staunch supporter of slain LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran, he also criticised the former prime minister for sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in the 1980s.
The 20-page report on the island nation covering the period from November 2006 to September 2007, notes that 'both parties have failed to cease the abduction, recruitment and use of children.'
'And no one expected the case to be detected, because there was nothing.'
The two brothers led a decisive campaign that helped end the island nation's three decade long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
LTTE leaders has been barred by SL court to travel out of the country
Meanwhile, a three-member committee appointed to probe the attacks that killed 258 people, including 11 Indians, on Monday submitted its final report to President Maithripala Sirisena.
Favouring replication of the Indian model of federalism in Sri Lanka to solve the ethnic problem, members of Parliament from three Tamil parties of the island nation on Tuesday asked New Delhi to play a more active role in the peace process.
Elsewhere, the guerrillas abducted 21 students and later freed them.
Scotland Yard's War Crimes Team, which is part of its Counter-Terrorism Command, has launched an investigation into the role of British mercenaries in fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.
"We urge the government that the issue of security of our leaders has to be beyond partisan political considerations," said Anand Sharma in Rajya Sabha.
According to observers, with pro-China Rajapaksa winning the election, the result will have a bearing on India's presence in the Indian Ocean region where Beijing is increasingly making inroads.
The use of the LTTE's air force for the first time means that the war in Lanka is likely to intensify.
Vaiko has said the Tamils deserve a nation of their own.
Xi Jinping is winning the war without firing a shot in Sri Lanka, observes Colonel R Hariharan (retd).
National Television of Thamil Eelam will be beaming programmes to European nations from an undisclosed location in Sri Lanka's northeast.
SPG Act tweaked to ensure that commandoes accompany protectees overseas as well.
Pro-Tamil outfits like Periyar Dravida Iyakkam and 'May 17 movement' celebrated the birth anniversary in various parts of the city by cutting cakes and distributing sweets.
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.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagamchief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's statement -- that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's cadres were still trying very hard to revive the conflict -- was aimed at diverting the world's attention from the alleged human rights violations in the island republic.
Stepping up pressure on the United Progressive Alliance government on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Tamil Nadu on Wednesday demanded that India move a resolution in the UN Security Council for a referendum for separate Tamil Eelam and stop calling Colombo a friendly nation.
Rajapaksa is the first president to be sworn in outside Colombo.
Naam Tamilar leader Seeman on why his party opposes John Abraham's new film.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters were dressed in Indian army uniforms during the final battles of the nearly three-decade long civil war, former Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has said.
According to the book, 'Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away With War Crimes', authored by UK-based investigative journalist Phil Miller India's secret use of British mercenaries lasted for four months after the Indo-Lanka accord was signed between former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Sri Lankan president Junius Jayewardene in 1987.
The faction controlled by renegade commander V Muralitharan alias Karuna fired mortars and small arms fire for nearly two hours across the Verugal river.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam sponsored Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation conference in Delhi was a dud with major opposition parties like the Janata Dal-United, Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party staying away.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi on Friday led a state-wide protest against the visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India, accusing him of making efforts to 'annihilate' the Tamils in the island republic.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Central Investigating Agency's former chief investigating officer K Ragotham speaks about the conspiracy and the hurdles that were faced in a probe in which many aspects were hushed up.
Defence Secretary Fernando said Subathran was gunned down by sniper fire in Jaffna.
An international airport, a strategic port, communication satellites, road and railway links -- China is spreading its web in the island nation. India has to take decisive steps or else the tide could turn against it, note T E Narasimhan and Veenu Sandhu.
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.
Sri Lanka on Tuesday described hacking of the ministry of media and information's website as an act of 'cyber terrorism'.
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.
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