Kolkata: India on Wednesday made it clear that it has no sympathy for the terrorists in Sri Lanka but was concerned only over the plight of thousands of civilians who are fleeing the conflilct zone.
"Over 58,600 civilians have come out of the conflict zone till this morning," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at a meet-the-press programme in Kolkata.
"So it is not true that the Sri Lankan authorities were not responding to our appeal," the minister said, adding, "We have no sympathy for the terrorists, but every sympathy for the civilians."
"There are conflicting signals about the exact number of civilians who were still trapped in the conflict zone. The Sri Lankan authorities were saying that the number was between 10,000 and 15,000. However, UN observers have put the figure at between 30,000 and 40,000," he said.
The External Affairs Minister said that India had been telling Colombo that what it was saying or doing 'should be in the interest of the international community so that there was no violation of human rights or liberties'.
With regard to the civilians' evacuation, he said the Sri Lankan authorities should take the international community into confidence.
Mukherjee said that India had already made an appeal to the Sri Lanka government to extend the period of the cessation of hostilities.
"We did not use the term ceasefire; what we said was that there should be a pause to enable the civilians to go to safer zones."
"I requested the Sri Lankan government to ensure that relief materials sent by India specially be distributed through the International Red Cross," he said.
The minister emphasised that relief materials sent by other countries and especially the UN should be also allowed to be distributed through the International Red Cross.