Lanka to recruit 50,000 soldiers: Army chief

Even after routing the LTTE, the Sri Lanka army is all set to recruit up to 50,000 personnel to consolidate its position in the Wanni region once the stronghold the Tamil tigers.

Observing that the security strength needed to be beefed up to consolidate its presence in the liberated areas in the Wanni, Sri Lankan army chief Jagath Jayasuriya said the government proposed to recruit an additional 20,000-50,000 personnel to the army.

"We need more people", he said in his first interaction with the media here, adding, recruitment was needed in the wake of the impending retirements and other factors like injuries to the soldiers during the battle against the LTTE.

The army chief said though the current official strength of the army is estimated at 2 lakh, the situation on the ground was different with the actual number of fit combatants being much less.

Jayasuriya said some LTTE sleeping cadres were still present in the country but the middle level leadership of the tiger rebels had been crushed.

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