Delegation of pro-LTTE Lankan party to visit India, meet FS

New Delhi/Colombo, Apr 11 (PTI) As the war in Sri Lanka
nears an end, a delegation of a pro-LTTE Tamil political party
of the island nation will visit India next week to discuss the
situation in first such contact in the recent years.

A five-member delegation of Tamil National Alliance
(TNA), headed by its Parliamentary Party leader R Sambandan,
will meet Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon here during
their two-day visit from April 16, External Affairs Ministry
sources told PTI in New Delhi.

The focus of the discussions will be the current
situation in northern Sri Lanka and contributions that India
can make for reconstruction and development of the area after
the war is over.

This will be the first meeting of leaders of a pro-LTTE
political outfit with Indian government in the recent years.
It comes at the invitation of Indian government.

TNA, which has 22 MPs in the Sri Lankan Parliament, has
agreed to the meeting as it wants to listen to what India has
to say, senior party MP Ariyanethiran told PTI in Colombo.

He said the party was initially not in a mood to attend
the meeting but decided to go to New Delhi after consulting
the people of Vanni who said this was an opportunity to see
what India wants to do. PTI AKK/TVS
PMR
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