COLOMBO, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The civilian life in Sri Lanka's Northern Province is fast returning to normal, the state radio announced on Saturday.

    The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation's morning English news bulletin quoted its chairman Hudson Samarasinghe as saying that a large number of Buddhist devotees were attending a Buddhist religious program at a temple in Nagarkovil in the northern Jaffna peninsula marking the poya or the Buddhist holy day of the month Saturday.

    The radio said it was an indication that the civilian life was fast becoming normal in the north.

    About 74 percent of Sri Lanka's population are Buddhists but a majority in the Jaffna peninsula are Hindu Tamils.

    The radio also said that the international rights watch group, Amnesty International had condemned the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels for their attempt to use people living in the north as a human shield when facing up to the advancing government troops.

    It added that some 500 Catholic devotees had taken part in a special service at the Madhu church located in Mannar in the north in an area liberated from rebel control.

    The military had provided all facilities to people who wanted to attend Friday's service in the church.

    The government leaders have expressed hope that the rebels could be completely crushed by the end of the year paving the way for peace in the island for the first time in three decades.

    The LTTE rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community since the mid-1980s.