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New spring soon: Rajapaksa

— Photo: AFP

In action: A multi-barrel rocket launcher north of Olumadu on Tuesday.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has assured the citizens of North that all that they have lost due to terrorism would be restored and it would not be long before people trapped in Kilinochchi and Mullathivu are free.

In the first-ever address by a Sri Lankan President to the Tamil people in their own language beamed via satellite, Mr. Rajapaksa said, “Just like the New Dawn in the East, there will be the New Spring in the North.”

He was speaking on the occasion of an exhibition titled “Future Minds of Jaffna” held in the Jaffna town. According reports, thousands of people from the peninsula thronged the exhibition where a group of five artists from Tamil Nadu rendered musical performance on Saturday and Sunday.

“It is time for us to forget the unfortunate developments of the past. We shall take action to restore to the people of Jaffna and the North, all they have lost in the past,” Mr. Rajapaksa told the gathering.

The “Future Minds of Jaffna” also known as the Jaffna Educational and Industrial Exhibition 2008 is organised by the Army in Jaffna.

Separately, the military said troops were in the process of making another “shocking manoeuvre on the battlefield bringing the LTTE closer to its certain defeat”.

The Defence Ministry claimed that troops were steadily marching towards north of Mulliyawalai, entering the jungle area lying between Puthukkudiyiruppu and Mulliyawali.

The Ministry said an Army division is operating very close to the LTTE’s main military bastion in Mullathivu town. “The strategic focus of the Wanni counter terrorist operation shifted from the Kilinochchi front to the Mullathivu front once troops gained total control over the western shores of the island.”

Meanwhile, the Air Force carried out six bombing missions and one helicopter assault on LTTE defences on the Mullathivu and Kilinochchi battlefronts. Air Force spokesperson Janaka Nanayakkara said the jets raided LTTE strongholds in Paranthan and west of Kilinochchi in support of the troops marching towards Kilinochchi.

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