TNN
New Delhi, Apr 21: The 24-hour deadline announced by Sri Lanka for LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his aides to surrender has further added to the woes of New Delhi, already red-faced with DMK leader M Karunanidhi's remark that he did not look upon the prime accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination as a terrorist.
The Sri Lanka army announced a major and "final" offensive to flush out LTTE terrorists holed up in an area measuring no more than 20 sq km in the north-eastern part of the country. According to a UN estimate, there are still close to 100,000 civilians trapped in the area. Although Sri Lankan officials believe the number of those trapped is not more than 50,000, any further civilian casualty is going to hurt India no end. Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee had declared last week that any more civilian casualty would be "totally unacceptable".
Although the MEA doesn't seem to believe that the deadline announced by Colombo is the beginning of the end game, New Delhi is keeping its fingers crossed because it doesn't want to do anything to suggest a shift in its stand that it won't mediate in the crisis. Any more violence against civilians will increase the pressure on New Delhi manifold to intervene.
"Prabhakaran is a proclaimed offender and the LTTE is a terrorist outfit and it should be treated on par with such other organisations," said Congress spokesperson and minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma in response to Karunanidhi's statement.
Terming the situation in Sri Lanka as a matter of deep concern for both the government and the Congress, Sharma said, "We have a firm policy on the Sri Lanka issue. The people of Tamil origin should get their constitutional rights."
Colombo has rejected calls for ceasefire-negotiation by UN to facilitate evacuation of trapped civilians as it believes it is on the verge of crushing the 25-year-old insurgency. Its military on Monday claimed that 35,000 civilians had managed to flee from the LTTE-held area in the past 24 hours.
Sri Lankan authorities, who had been making attempts to get the trapped Tamil civilians to go to safe designated zones, pressed in helicopters and naval boats in what they billed as the "world's largest hostage rescue mission". Elaborating on President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ultimatum to LTTE, army chief Sarath Fonseka said Prabhakaran and his top aides would face "dire consequences" if they did not surrender.
Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the ultimatum was the final opportunity for Prabhakaran to end the conflict. Rambukwella said the rebel leader's capture or death had now become inevitable because he was about to lose his civilian cover. The government also claimed that the Tigers had carried out a suicide attack in the no fire zone (NFZ) on Monday to prevent the military from rescuing 10,000 civilians who were being used as human shields.