Chennai: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Saturday evasive on India extending a helping hand to Sri Lanka to capture banned LTTE leader V Prabhakaran and extradite him to India to stand trial in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Addressing a press conference here, he admitted that, ''Prabhakaran is a proclaimed offender.''
Asked whether India would help Sri Lanka to nab Prabhakaran and bring him to India, the Prime Minister said Prabhakaran was a proclaimed offender wanted in India.
Sidestepping the question, Dr Singh said, ''Right now the issue is the future of Tamils in Sri Lanka and the immediate concern is that Tamils trapped in war zones should be brought to safety and the problem of relief and rehabilitation should be addressed.''
''In the long term, Sri Lanka should be made to see reason that the ethnic crisis cannot be solved militarily and find a political settlement,'' he said.
On his suggestion that Sri Lanka should build a political consensus including thorough discussions with all shades of Lankan Tamils and whether it included the LTTE also, the Prime Minister, evading a direct reply, said the settlement process should include all sections of Tamils for an effective solution.
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