Sri Lankan soil not used to train terrorists - GL

Sri Lanka has found no evidence to suggest that the country’s territory is being used by terror group LeT to train terrorists, External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris, who is on a four-day visit to India, said Saturday. He said there is no merit in such claims. Earlier, one of the accused in the Pune bakery blast case had said LeT operatives were being trained in Lanka.

“The matter was brought to our notice. It was examined by our defence authorities but we have not found anything to establish it,” Prof Peiris told Times of India adding that the two countries were involved in an intelligence sharing mechanism to prevent any such activity.

He said Colombo will continue to have a special relationship with India while advancing its economic cooperation with China. He also said there is no question of allowing any country to use its territory against India.

Speaking on the need to expedite political solution and devolution of power in Lanka, Prof Peiris had said Friday in a lecture that it was impossible to talk of an exact timeframe for implementing the 13th amendment.

“It is a great mistake to do because if you talk of timeframe and then you are not able to complete the process, it is bound to be conjecture, speculative, then there is erosion of credibility,” he had said.

“In these constitutional processes things cannot be telescoped into clearly defined timeframe, and we don’t think that’s the way to go about it,” he added while delivering the R K Mishra Memorial Lecture on Growth, Equity and Security. The Times of India