LTTE may target PM, PC, Karuna
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is trying to regroup and strengthen its presence in India, is planning to target top political leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Tamil Nadu chief minister M, Karunanidhi, home minister P. Chidambaram and home secretary G.K. Pillai, according to fresh intelligence inputs.
The threat gains significance in the run up to Dr Manmohan Singh’s visit to Tamil Nadu next month where he would be attending some public functions, sources said. The Central agencies have informed the state police which has been asked to strengthen security measures.
The government extended the ban on the LTTE in May this year maintaining that its cadres are regrouping in Tamil Nadu to take revenge against Indian leaders for not preventing its military rout last year. The Sri Lankan Army eliminated the top brass of the outfit in May last year, including its top leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and all his top lieutenants. The home ministry notification extending the ban on the outfit for another two years said that although the Sri Lankan military has decimated the LTTE, its surviving members are “regrouping in Tamil Nadu in pursuance of their avowed objective of establishing separate Tamil Eelam”. According to the intelligence inputs received last week, some cadres of the LTTE, who escaped the wrath of the Sri Lankan Army, are making efforts to regroup in India and planning attacks on top political leaders, particularly when they travel in Tamil Nadu. An intelligence official said that though the LTTE does not pose any real-time threat after its decimation , the threat is being taken seriously by the security forces. “Though LTTE is now a weak force and all top leaders were killed during the Sri Lankan Army’s assault, attempts to regroup by some cadres is a disturbing report,” the official said.
India first outlawed the LTTE in 1992 after an LTTE suicide squad assassinated former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
Post new comment