Colombo - Security forces have mounted a search operation in north-central Sri Lanka after Tamil separatist rebels gunned down four farmers overnight and wounded four others, a military official said Thursday.

The farmers were shot in the Menikdeniya area of Welikanda, 160 kilometres north-east of Colombo late Wednesday.

The incident was the second such attack in less than 24 hours. On Tuesday night, five farmers were shot dead and two more injured in Serunuwara, 230 kilometres north-east of the capital.

London, Mar 26 : Sri Lankan cricket captain Kumar Sangakkara has said the terrorist attack on the team bus outside Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium has changed the players’ approach forever.

Sangakkara said now players would first assess security arrangements and talk to their families before committing themselves to any tournament.

He told the BBC it was a miracle that none of his team members were killed in the attack.

Colombo - Suspected Tamil rebels shot dead five farmers and injured two others in a remote village in north-eastern Sri Lanka, police said Wednesday.

The farmers were out on their fields in the Dehiwatta area of Serunuwara in the district of Trincomalee, 220 kilometres north-east of Colombo, Tuesday night to protect the crops from animal attacks when they were shot.

The hands of the farmers had been tied before they were shot, police said. The two surviving farmers are in serious condition and were brought to hospital.

Lahore, Mar 24 : Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has disclosed that traces of foreign powers' involvement were found in the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team, and that there was much progress in the probe being conducted in this regard.

According to him, "saying something else on this issue will be premature. Let the probe be completed."

Karachi, Mar. 23 : Former Pakistan cricket captain Zaheer Abbas has said that the shifting of the Indian Premier League (IPL) from India may further dent hopes of holding the 2011 World Cup in the region whose fate already hangs in uncertainty, especially after the terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore.

Abbas termed the decision to shift the IPL from India to some other country as a `bad omen' for Asian cricket.

Colombo, Mar. 23: Briefing documents prepared by the United Nations have warned of a major humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, where over 150,000 people are being shelled at daily and are running short of water and medicine.

The Sri Lankan Government has declared the area in question as a "No Fire Zone", and the UN claims that tens of thousands of people are caught between the last 1,500 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the advancing troops of the Sri Lankan army.