Sri Lankan cabinet minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was among 12 people killed outside Colombo April 6 in a blast blamed on a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. At least 90 people were wounded in the explosion minutes before the start of a traditional marathon race held as part of a Hindu new year celebration at Waliweriy. Indo-Asian News Service called the event "Hindu-Sinhala," as it was attended by minority Hindu members of the mostly Buddhist ethnic Sinhalese majority on the island. Marathon gold medallist K.A. Karunaratne was also among the dead. (IANS, April 6)

Police in Kathmandu clashed with hundreds of Tibetan refugees during a protest March 15 over the repression in Lhasa. The protesters tried to march on the Chinese embassy, but the police barred their way. The previous day, dozens were injured when police broke up a march on the embassy by some 1,000 Tibetan protesters, including dozens of monks. Twelve monks were reported injured. (IANS, March 15; AP, March 14)

New Delhi has rushed a high-level team of senior Home Ministry officials to eastern Orissa state after some 600 Naxalite guerillas carried out simultaneous raids on several police stations in Nayagarh district late Feb. 15, killing 15 and looting large quantities of arms and ammunition. The dead included a village paramilitary guard, a civilian and 13 police. Ten more were injured. Orissa police are now combing the Kupari forests, where the guerillas fled. Andhra Pradesh police and paramilitary forces have also joined the hunt. The security forces are backed up by helicopter gunships, with Delhi saying air strikes are being considered if Naxalite strongholds can be located. (The Hindu, The Statesman, Feb. 16)

Protesters took to the streets of the Kashmiri capital Srinagar [Feb. 11] to mark the 24th anniversary of the hanging of Maqbool Bhat, the founder of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. In 1984, Bhat was executed in Delhi for killing an Indian intelligence officer. Indian police detained dozens of demonstrators in clashes that involved rock-throwing and tear gas. [Protesters demanded the return of Maqbool Bhat's remains, which are believed to be interred in an Indian prison.]

Tamils in the UK marked the 60th anniversary of Sri Lankan independence Feb. 5 with a hundreds-strong protest at Downing Street demanding "real freedom" and "real rights" for the Hindu minority on the island. That same day, at least 14 were killed in two roadside bombings in Sri Lanka. In his independence day address to the nation, President Mahinda Rajapakse said the "challenge bestowed upon us by history is the defeat of terrorism," and government forces had cornered the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north. His government recently ended a 2002 cease-fire with the rebels. The protest was called by the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), while the British Tamils Forum held a photo exhibition near parliament on "the past 60 years of oppression, ethnic cleansing and discrimination that...the Tamil community has faced at the hands of the sovereign state of Sri Lanka." The Sri Lankan government protested the protest, charging it was organized by AC Shanthan and Golden Lambert. Both men have reportedly been arrested in the past under UK anti-terrorist laws and are believed to be out on bail. "Sources" cited by the Times of India said the two are "prominent fund-raisers" for the Tamil Tigers.

While the Shi'ite Ashura festivals went off peacefully in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir this year, there were riots on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Islamabad's official Associated Press of Pakistan writes Jan. 21 that "[T]he occupying Indian troops subjected hundreds of mourners to brute force in Srinagar and several other places in the held state to prevent them from taking out Ashura procession." India's NDTV reports that incidents of "stone-pelting" erupted after police tried to break up "clashes...between members of the Shia and Sunni communities...after a Shia procession was taken out in Gojwara, which is a predominantly Sunni area." The Srinagar-based Greater Kashmir News Network reports Jan. 24 that ten detainees in the city are on hunger strike to protest their failure to be brought before a magistrate.

A series of four bomb blasts rocked the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan over the weekend, wounding one person and damaging shops and businesses. One blast was in the Bhutanese capital, Thimphu; the others targeted shops and markets in the remote districts of Samste, Chukha and Dagana. The explosions come as the once rigidly closed monarchy is preparing its first national elections on March 24. Bhutan's authorities say they suspect one of three militant organizations based in refugee camps in nearby Nepal—the Bhutan Tiger Force, the Bhutan Maoists Party, and the Communist Party of Bhutan.

At least four people are dead following sectarian clashes that broke out over Christmas celebrations in Kandhamal district of the eastern Indian state of Orissa. Hindu and Christian residents put each other's homes to the torch in the Christian-dominated village of Brahmanigaon. When Hindu residents took refuge in the police station, a group of some 500 besieged the station house—some reportedly firing on it. When police returned fire, four residents were killed. Three police were also reported injured. More may have been killed in clashes, but all communication to the village has been cut.