NEW DELHI, Nov 9: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, under pressure from Tamil parties against attending a Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Colombo, would skip the meeting, sources said on Saturday.

They quoted unnamed officials as saying that Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid would head the Indian delegation at the CHOGM, to be held in Sri Lanka next week.

The decision on level of Indian representation and Prime Minister Singh skipping the meeting would be communicated to the Lankan government by Sunday, sources said.

“The Prime Minister is likely to write to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa by Sunday regarding his decision,” government sources said.

However, there was no official announcement over Dr Singh’s decision to skip the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting on Nov 15-16.

Political parties in Tamil Nadu and several other outfits have opposed India’s participation at any level in the CHOGM alleging that the Sri Lankan government had committed gross violation of human rights and had no plans to devolve powers to ethnic Tamils.

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