Photograph:Tamil Guardian

Families of the disappeared in Amparai carried out a silent protests against the Presidential Commission on Missing Persons outside the Kalmunai divisional secretariat for two days on Monday and Tuesday.

The killing of 20 men by Indian police in Andhra Pradesh has resulted in widespread condemnation by politicians and human rights groups, with several protests in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, where the majority of victims were from.

The men were shot by state police, who suspected them of smuggling sandalwood near the border with Tamil Nadu. The police defended their actions, saying they fought back against attacks with axes sticks and stones.

Indian media reported some of the men were shot in the face at close range.

"At one of the two sites where bodies were found, seven of the nine dead had been shot in the face or the back of the head," the Indian Express reported, saying many of the victims had unexplained burn injuries.

The Andhra Pradesh government denied the men were shot at close range and dismissed allegations the men were executed after capture.

Sri Lankan cricketers will not be featuring in any Indian Premier League (IPL) matches that are to be played in Chennai, reports the Hindu.

Chennai's security services told the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) that they would not be able to provide adequate protection for the cricketers if they were to play in Tamil Nadu, given reports of massacres committed by the Sri Lankan state provoking protests in India.

Talks held in Singapore this weekend between Tamil and Sri Lankan groups on promoting reconciliation and strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka, faced criticism this week over a lack of transparency over the process.

"The fact that the above initiative is shrouded in secrecy raises serious concerns whether the legitimate aspirations and long term interests of the Eelam Tamils will be addressed by the above initiative," said the International Council of Eelam Tamils (ICET), a network of 14 Tamil diaspora groups worldwide, on Tuesday,
stating that the meeting also lacked proper Tamil representation. See full statement here.

"[It is] important to note that we did not try to get a full comprehensive representation of Tamil diaspora to the meeting," Ivor Jenkins of the South Africa based dialogue promotion group, In Transformation Initiative (ITI) which organised the meeting in conjunction with the Swiss government, told Tamil Guardian on Tuesday, when asked which organisations were present at the meeting.

Highlighting that the former ruling coalition and opposition parties were now both in the new government, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA)  said  that it was the largest party in parliament outside of government, on Sunday.

“The UPFA is part of the government now. So we are the largest party in the opposition,” the TNA leader R Sampanthan, told journalists.