Bhargav Reddy – APAC Assistance Operations Assistant
Major Issues In SOUTH ASIA
Tuesday, 02 April 2019
SRI LANKA
Cases filed against LTTE suspects. The Government says criminal cases filed on 54 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspects are set to commence. Justice Minister Thalatha Atukorale said that the police are also still conducting investigations on six suspects. She was responding in Parliament to questions raised by some Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members over the plight of Tamil political prisoners. Atukorale has said in the past that there are no political prisoners in Sri Lanka. The cases against the LTTE suspects can potentially trigger protests by the Tamil political parties and pressure groups who allege that the prisoners are political prisoners. The civil war between the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka ended in 2009 after three decades while the Sri Lankan Military was accused of war crimes against the Tamil population in the northern regions of the island.
Suspected smugglers arrested. Naval personnel of the Northern Naval Command arrested four Nigerians in the Northern seas. The suspected Nigerian smugglers were arrested with two Sri Lankans on a trawler 12 nautical miles North of the Thalaimannar lighthouse. Drug smuggling has emerged to be a major concern for the law enforcement agencies in Sri Lanka. Drug smuggling gangs pose a threat to law and order in major cities of the country. Clients are advised to employ caution in major cities including Colombo and avoid nightlife areas.
INDIA
Fighter jets scrambled along the border. The Indian Air Force today scrambled two Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets after the Indian Army detected a suspected Pakistani drone flying close to the border in the northern state of Punjab’s Khemkaran sector today. Pakistan responded by allegedly sending two of its American-made F-16 jets. The Pakistani jets soon turned back. Several Pakistan drones have been shot down by the Indian Air Force in the last two months along the border in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Tensions between the two countries have mounted following an air strike on a camp of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot in Pakistan on February 26. The air strike was launched following a suicide attack on Indian paramilitary troops at Pulwama in the Indian-controlled Jammu and Kahsmir region on February 14.