India sends medical aid to Sri Lanka

New Delhi, Mar 9 (ANI): India on Monday dispatched medical aid to Sri Lanka to provide assistance to the civilians displaced in the island war.

Twenty-five tones of medical aid including medicine and related equipment and 25 medical personnel are being sent in the first batch by the Indian air force IL76 aircraft.

A total of four such medical aid trips would be sent.

"The Indian air force IL 76 today is carrying the medical humanitarian relief material to Colombo. We are going to carry out four trips. Today we are carrying 25 tonnes of medical aid which includes medicine, and medical related equipment," said Captain S. M. Goswami, officer incharge.

Sri Lankan soldiers have cornered the Tamil Tiger separatists in an area less than 45 square km (17 sq miles) in the Indian Ocean island's northeastern shore, aiming to deliver a final blow to a separatist war that has raged off and on since 1983.

The United Nations and others have said there are around 200,000 people trapped in the war zone, while the government says the number is no more than 70,000.

The military denies firing inside the no-fire zone and has repeatedly accused the LTTE of creating a crisis to get international pressure for a ceasefire, which it has done in the past and used as a period to re-arm. (ANI)