New Delhi: In a renewed violence in Sri Lanka, a bomb blast ripped through a civilian bus killing 15 people, mostly women and children, and injuring at least 20 others.
The latest attack took place in Ampara district in the restive east, taking the death toll from a rash of incidents overnight to 32.
LTTE is suspected to be behind the blasts. But it's still unclear whether the bus was hit by a roadside bomb or a bomb detonated inside the bus.
The killings come amid near-daily air raids, land and sea battles and ambushes that have killed around 4,000 people in the past 15 months alone, and as rights groups denounce both sides for serial abuses and lobby for an international rights monitoring mission.
Sri Lanka has witnessed an escalation of violence over last two weeks. Also the 5-year-old ceasefire between the government and LTTE is in tatters.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has asked for a strong statement from SAARC against terrorism.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's majority-Sinhalese government is set to call on its South Asian neighbours to forge a common anti-terror drive at a regional summit in New Delhi this week.
An internationally-appointed panel of experts is observing a presidential probe into a host of killings blamed on each side as extra judicial killings, abductions and rights abuses have mushroomed in recent months.
Comments
0 comment