Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has reportedly asked his friend and Dehra Dun-based human rights activist Avadhash Kaushal to act as a negotiator in any possible talks with the LTTE.

With the Norway-brokered peace talks in a deadlock, the Sri Lankan President is trying to reaching out to his friends in India to help end the long drawn war in the island nation.

‘‘I was asked by the Sri Lankan government to be part of the negotiation team,’’ said Kaushal, who was in Sri Lanka for five days as a personal guest of the President. Kaushal, who also met the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, said he would be going back to Sri Lanka soon.

Rajapakse was a regular visitor to the Doon valley before he occupied the top post in Sri Lanka.

Rajapakse was actively involved in the human rights centre of the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), an NGO run by Kaushal.

Rajapakse had visited the town as a Lankan minister and then as the Prime Minister to participate in programmes of the RLEK.