Colombo, June 15
At least 61 civilians, including children, have been killed and 40 more wounded when a fully-loaded passenger bus plying between Anuradhapura and Kebithikkollawa got caught in a powerful claymore mine blast by suspected LTTE cadres this morning.

“The passenger bus was travelling with over 100 civilian passengers when suspected LTTE cadres exploded the powerful claymore (10-15 kg) mine around 07.15 am this morning, killing 58 persons on the spot,” military spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said.

He said of the 40 wounded, three persons succumbed to the injuries on admission to the Kebithikkollawa base hospital in Anuradhapura district.

This is a major attack which has taken the lives of over 50 civilians during the past four-year-long ceasefire agreement.

Speaking to reporters, government spokesman and Minister of Media, Anurapriyadarshana Yapa said the motive of the attackers was to “instigate a backlash in order to fulfil their evil designs” and urged the people to remain calm.

“The government urges the people to be calm and support its endeavour to eradicate the menace of terrorism,” he said.

Accusing the LTTE of carrying yet another attack on the civilians, government spokesman on defence matters, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said, “This was not a mistaken target.”

“It is not a mistaken target because the military does not use this route. The LTTE was well aware that they are civilians. The attack carries the hallmark of the LTTE and there is no iota of doubt that it was carried out of the LTTE,” Rambukwella said, adding that the government was in touch with the international community, especially the donor co-chairs, the Norwegian facilitators “to come forward to eradicate this menace of terrorism.”

Asked whether the government considered this attack as an act of war, he said, “It is an act of terrorism.”

“There is no declaration of war, but this is an act of terrorism. As far as the government is concerned, the Norwegian-brokered peace process and Ceasefire Agreement are still on, but we have to re-look them seriously in the proper context,” Rambukwella said.

The blast has taken place exactly a day after a five-member LTTE delegation led by its political wing head SP Thamilselvan, returned to the Wanni after refusing to hold direct talks with the Colombo delegation in Oslo in the presence of the Norwegian facilitators, on matters pertaining to the safety and operational modalities of the Nordic truce monitors. — UNI 

Islamabad, June 15
An official advertisement in Pakistan, showing the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir as part of India, has put the government in an embarassing position with the Commerce Ministry ordering an enquiry into it.

The advertisement for the seventh SAARC Trade Fair to be held in Karachi from tomorrow depicted Jammu and Kashmir, including the northern areas as part of India, and was published in local dailies yesterday.

An inquiry has been ordered into the matter to find out whose fault it was to use a wrong map of Pakistan, a spokesman for the Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan (EPB) has said.

The advertisement had drawn protests from Pakistan's strategic analysts and retired diplomats. Several officials and bureaucrats called up Prime Minister's office here and protested the publication of the map, including the "disputed" areas of Kashmir as part of India, The News daily reported.

Those who protested, including former Additional Secretary of Pakistan Foreign Office Akram Zaki, and Director-General of the Institute of Strategic Studies Shirin Mazari. "I was horrified that the Ministry of Commerce would make such a serious mistake. This is the second time that this ministry has put out incorrect maps of Pakistan and India," Mazari said.

According to the daily, some lawmakers are expected to raise the issue in the current session "to ensure the ministry does not go for a hat trick on this particular mistake." — PTI

Kathmandu, June 15
The Nepal government and Maoists today held fresh round of talks, after which they announced that Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and rebel chief Prachanda would hold talks soon and constituent assembly elections would be conducted “as soon as possible.”

“We have agreed to a four-point agenda that includes holding high-level talks between the Prime Minister and the Maoist leader Prachanda... and to go for the constituent assembly election as soon as possible,” Home Minister and government’s chief peace negotiator Krishna Sitoula told reporters here after the second round of talks that lasted two hours.

“We have sorted out all differences and now we have agreed to move ahead with the single agenda of holding the constituent assembly election,” Maoist chief negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

Elections to a constituent assembly, which would write a new constitution possibly clipping King Gyanendra’s powers, was one of the key demands of the rebels for resuming peace talks.

The two sides also formed a 31-member Human Rights Monitoring Committee headed by civil society leader Devendra Raj Pandey.

The body would monitor the ceasefire code of conduct and seek help from the UN Human Rights office to monitor the peace process, Sitoula said.

The seven-party government and Maoists also formed a five-member team to observe their dialogue process, said a joint press statement issued after the talks. — PTI

ISRAEL’S Defence Minister Amir Peretz on Tuesday denied that Israeli forces were responsible for the deaths of seven Palestinians on a beach in Gaza, but a New York-based human rights group said it had evidence to the contrary.

Human Rights Watch urged Israel to launch an independent and impartial inquiry into the June 9 incident in which an Israeli shell allegedly killed the beachgoers.

Researchers from the group were on the scene soon after the incident and Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle-East and Africa division at the group, said: ‘‘The evidence we have gathered strongly suggests Israeli artillery fire was to blame.’’

Earlier, addressing a press conference in Tel Aviv, Mr Peretz said: ‘‘We have enough findings to back up the suspicion that the intention to describe this as an Israeli event is simply not correct.’’

He added: ‘‘The accumulating evidence proves that this incident was not due to Israeli forces.' The inquiry was conducted by the Israeli army.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Israeli government had not shared its findings with the US. He said both sides had responsibilites to work toward an ‘‘atmosphere of calm.’’

Some Israeli officials have suggested the explosion may have been caused by a land mine placed by Palestinian militants, rather than one of their artillery shells, despite the fact that they cannot account for the final landing place of one of their six shells.

Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, called this Israeli claim ‘‘a false allegation,’’ and said the ‘‘Israeli occupation state is trying to escape from shouldering its responsibility by accusing the Palestinians without evidence or any proof.’’

‘‘The eyewitnesses and the evidence that we have confirm that the massacre is the result of Israeli shelling, and the allegation about land mines planted by Palestinians is baseless,’’ he said.

Ms Whitson called for an independent probe by external, international experts. ‘‘Internal investigations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have generally fallen short of international standards for thorough and impartial investigations and have rarely uncovered the truth or held to account the perpetrators of violations,’’ the rights group said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch described between five and six explosions on the beach between 4:30 pm and 5 pm, the time frame when the IDF fired artillery onto the beach and when the seven civilians were killed. Two survivors said they heard the sound of an incoming projectile and saw a blur of motion in the sky before the explosion that killed the civilians, the group said.

The seven family members killed in the attack were Ali Isa Ghalya, 49; Ra'issa Ghalya, 35; Haitham Ghalya, 1; Hanadi Ghalya, 2; Sabrin Ghalya, 4; Ilham Ghalya, 15; and Alia Ghalya, 17.

Shrapnel from the blast also pierced a nearby car where Hani Radwan Azanin’s daughters Nagham, 4, and Dima, 7, were hiding. They suffered serious injuries to their backs and arms.