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PM rules out military intervention in Lanka

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Saturday iterated that India would not send its military to Sri Lanka to solve the ethnic problem of that country.

At a public meeting in Keylong (Himachal Pradesh), he said India wanted a peaceful solution to the Lankan crisis and that Colombo should change its policy against Tamils and adopt peaceful means.

Referring to Pakistan chief executive General Pervez Musharraf's propaganda that his government was willing to have a peace dialogue with India on the Kashmir issue, the prime minister said no talk was possible unless Pakistan stopped fomenting terrorism in Kashmir.

''Our government does not want to grab any other country's land and we will also not allow the other country to grab even one inch of land,'' he added.

Meanwhile, a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam vehicle laden with explosives caught fire and exploded after security forces directed artillery fire at the vehicle Friday night even as seven Tamil Tiger guerrillas were killed in sporadic clashes in Jaffna.

A government spokesman said ground troops observed vehicle movement in Chiviyathurai and directed artillery fire. The vehicle, presumably, carrying explosives caught fire and exploded.

In Colobuthurai, army snipers killed three militants, while in Mannar, troops retaliated when terrorists opened fire during the search of a hideout, killing four terrorists.

UNI

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