India will not help LTTE - Senior Indian official

With the conflict in Sri Lanka escalating, India on Tuesday said it will do everything to protect the rights and humanitarian conditions of Tamils in the island nation.

Commenting on the violence in Sri Lanka, a senior official travelling with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Japan told Times of India that New Delhi is not going to help the LTTE, as it is a terrorist organisation behind the assassination of an Indian Prime Minister and has not even apologised for it.

"There is a clear distinction between the LTTE and the Tamils," he said.

At the same time, the official reiterated that India will do everything to protect the rights and humanitarian conditions of Tamils in Sri Lanka. He stressed that ordinary civilians must be protected in the ongoing war and New Delhi will also urge the Lankan Government for restraint in this regard. India is already working with Red Cross, UN bodies and with the Sri Lankan authorities for the supply of food and essential items in the conflict zone.

However, the official added that there is a distinction between the LTTE and Tamils in Sri Lanka and even the opinion of political parties in Tamil Nadu is divided on this. Meanwhile, a section of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress Tuesday slammed the alleged eulogising of Tamil Tigers chief V. Prabhakaran by a few regional parties, IANS reported.

'Attempts by a section of the Tamil film industry to hail the LTTE leader Prabhakaran, who murdered (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi in cold blood is reprehensible. We strongly condemn these moves that seem to be actively supported by a few regional parties,' Congress legislator C. Gnanasekharan told reporters.

He also started a campaign against converting the Sri Lankan Tamils' issue into a move to popularise the LTTE in the state by exhorting his supporters to send telegrams to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

According to Gnanasekharan, a few thousand telegrams were sent within a few hours after the start of the campaign earlier in the day.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama Tuesday informed Parliament that Presidential Advisor MP Basil Rajapaksa would fly to New Delhi as the Government's special envoy to brief the Indian leaders on the war-related situation in the North.

'Presidential advisor Basil Rajapaksa would visit New Delhi as a special envoy to brief the Indian leaders on the current situation in Sri Lanka,' Bogollagama told Parliament.

The decision to send a special envoy came a day after India said it would take a decision on External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Colombo after the visit by a Sri Lankan delegation to New Delhi. 'No dates have been set. Nothing is set right now,' Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters Monday when asked about dates for Mukherjee's Colombo visit.

President Rajapaksa told local media heads and editors that he 'was aware of the political pressures in India at the moment, especially considering the reality of coalition politics and the diverse interests that surface in such situations'.