6th Sri lankan die: Doha Fire

The death toll from last week's fire tragedy in the Al Asmakh area of Doha rose to six yesterday with one of the injured succumbing to his injuries.

Dulan Salika Rathnasiri, who was in a critical condition at the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of Hamad Hospital, passed away at 9am, Sri Lankan Coordinating Committee (SLCC) President Lenny Cramer informed The Peninsula.

The fire, in a two-storey building on Al Maymoun street, had claimed five lives on June 19.

The Sri Lankan community in Qatar held a religious ceremony at the Sri Lankan Embassy premises yesterday evening to pay its last respects to the six victims — all Sri Lankans — of the devastating fire.

A Tharmakulasingham, Charge d' Affaires at the Sri Lanka Embassy, and his wife Rohini Tharmakulasingham attended the ceremony, which was led by the Sri Lanka Daham Pasala. Sri Lankans of all faiths took part in the ceremony.

Prayers were also offered for the speedy recovery of another of the injured, Vijitha Aluthge, who is recuperating at the Burns Unit of the Rumaillah Hospital.

Source: thepeninsulaqatar

India, Sri Lanka set up a security group

India has set up a mechanism with Sri Lanka to establish contact on the security situation and other bilateral issues.

India and Sri Lanka have formed an informal mechanism to remain in regular touch on the security situation in the island nation as well as on bilateral issues, a foreign ministry official said Friday.

He said the three-member Indian group in the mechanism includes National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Defense Secretary Vijay Singh. The Sri Lankan team consists of the secretary to the president, the defense secretary and the political secretary to the president.

The Indian team had visited Colombo last week to meet the Sri Lankan group. Both sides held detailed discussions on the steps being taken by the authorities to ensure an incident-free South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit in August and other related matters. Sri Lanka will hold the crucial meeting of the SAARC, a body of South Asian nations, amid growing incidents of violence.

Notwithstanding repeated requests from Colombo urging New Delhi to help find a solution to its ethnic conflict, New Delhi has refused to intervene in the matter for domestic political reasons.

Source: metimes