As Sri Lankan forces step up attacks to take control of a key Tamil Tigers' stronghold, the government has ruled out any ceasefire and asked the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam to lay down arms and surrender.
The Sri Lankan army's hopes to crush Tamil Tigers and end Asia's longest running civil war are still not around the corner, a media report said. 'Peace still will not be easy or, despite recent good news, immediate. The Tigers may still be able to carry out some terror attacks, though they no longer pose a wide-scale threat. And Colombo faces questions about its commitment to a permanent political settlement,' a Wall Street Journal report said.
Silva's name was mentioned in the resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2013, alleging rights abuses by the Sri Lankan Army.
Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the 'Fire and Fury' 14 Corps, has the experience and talent to face down the Chinese challenge. The general is a rare combination of thinker and tough-minded doer, observes David Devadas.
Images from the Under-19 World Cup final between India and Bangladesh, at Potchefstroom, on Sunday
Eighty-two Tamil Tigers were killed by security forces in Sri Lanka's north, including 51 who died in an army raid on a key Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam base, as fighter jets pounded another area in the embattled region targeting a rebel gathering, officials said on Thursday. The rebel toll in Wednesday's attack on the LTTE-held Vidattaltivu town in Mannar, which was captured by security forces, reached 51, according to the military.
The monkeys can't take their eyes off the snake, and Geetanjali Krishna has forgotten to breathe.
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.
B D Pande was Punjab's governor during Operation Bluestar. In this excerpt from his memoir, In the Service of Free India: Memoir of a Civil Servant, Pande reveals what really went on behind the scenes during those dark days in India's history.
Hurried and ill-planned Summits like the Vajpayee-Musharraf Summit in Agra which preceded the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001 are best avoided for now, says G Parthasarathy
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
"It is very dangerous in the 21st century to exclude people," said the Congress president.
Apparently emboldened by its recent military successes against the LTTE, the Sri Lankan government on Wednesday night decided to terminate the truce agreement with LTTE.
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.
Over 52 militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been killed in gunbattles between security forces and the rebels in Sri Lanka's embattled north, where the Army captured a portion of the rebel-held Thampane area.
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.
Ahead of his India visit on February 24-25, Trump said that India has not treated his country 'very well' on the trade front and indicated that a 'very big' bilateral deal with New Delhi may not be signed before the American presidential election in November.
Two of the terrorists belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
Solheim said the visits were an important part of preparations for a meeting in Tokyo next week of Sri Lanka's key international financial backers who are to review their support of a faltering peace process.
The LTTE said on Tuesday that they were entering talks although they had little confidence that the government will deliver on promises made to restore normality.
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.
-- Seven suicide bombers believed to be members of an Islamist extremist group carried out the series of explosions. -- Police have so far arrested 24 people - mostly members of an Islamist extremist group - in connection with the blasts
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram spoke to Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor in Chief, CNN IBN on the fallout of the Lahore attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team..
In a base case, the consultant said that sales could drop 25 per cent to 1.96 lakh units this year from 2.61 lakh units in 2019 across seven major cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad.
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
The blast is supposed to have been triggered by an army unit.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
the Navy exchanged fire with a flotilla of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the rebels attacked naval gunboats.
We present to you a special series that we had done 10 years after the IPKF withdrew from the island nation
Oman made a late comeback to defeat India 2-1 in the opening Group E match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup Joint-Qualifiers at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, on Thursday.
The final weeks of this World Cup, says Clive Lloyd, will be thrilling to watch - it's just a shame West Indies won't be part of it.
Seven persons had been arrested in connection with the blasts.
India needs to shed its policy of lethargy and inhibitions to engage the Taliban with an intent to maintain its influence in Afghanistan. This would not just put a spanner in Pakistani designs, but also incentivise the Taliban not to be the puppets of GHQ, Rawalpindi, asserts Colonel Nikhil Apte (retd), who served on the Af-Pak desk at the Military Operations Directorate.
Rajapakse says he is ready to talk to Tigers
Lashing out at those who sought leniency for Yakub Memon, the Shiv Sena on Friday demanded they should be "tried for being enemies of the country" and also asked the government to ensure that the 1993 serial blasts convict does not become a martyr in the eyes of people.
Though dubbed as the 'war hero', the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
In that case, who is Colonel R Saadat Ullah? Why underplay the fact mentioned in chargesheet that he belongs to Pakistan government's Special Communication Organisation?
During his nearly 25-minute speech, Trump praised Modi's economic reforms and said these reforms have lifted more than three million people out of poverty. "And that is an incredible number," he added.
The development marks a major milestone in Indian Navy's submarine programme as the vessel is expected to bolster India's maritime prowess
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