Over 150 killed in a month's violence in Sri Lanka

Over 150 people were killed in violence over the last one month's period in Sri Lanka's restive north and east zones, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake told parliament on Wednesday.

Speaking in the monthly parliamentary debate to extend the state of emergency by a further month, Wickramanayake said that some 53 troops and 101 civilians were killed in the escalation of violence.

Some 200 civilians and 181 troops were injured in the clashes, the prime minister added.

He said the state of emergency which gives sweeping powers to government troops to crackdown on terror acts of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) needs to be continued further.

Government troops annexed the key rebel stronghold of Vakarai in the Eastern Province mid-January, putting the area under government control for the first time in over a decade.

President Mahinda Rajapakse who is also the commander-in-chief of the troops visited the area last week and paid tribute to the troops for gaining Vakarai without a single civilian casualty.

Meanwhile the government on Wednesday accused a group of majority Sinhala community activists for working hand-in-glove with LTTE rebels.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the minister of Foreign Employment Promotion and the government's defense spokesman said that a journalist was among the three people arrested for links with the LTTE.

They had confessed to undergoing military training in the rebel held Kilinochchi in the north, Rambukwella told reporters.

He said a large haul of arms and ammunition had been recovered in the possession of the three arrested Sinhalese.

Source: Xinhua