COLOMBO, April 29: Six civilians were shot dead on Friday in separate attacks in three north-eastern districts of Sri Lanka. The body of a rickshaw driver was found with gunshot injuries in Jaffna while gunmen shot dead four Tamil men in eastern Batticaloa district.

Another man was shot dead in the Mannar district.

CONFERENCE: An all-party conference held at the presidential secretariat in Colombo on Friday unanimously agreed to take the peace process forward, despite strong reservations voiced by the government’s Marxist ally — the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) – and an all-monk party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya.