Alert to arrest LTTE men missing from camp

Image: Nanchikumar , a Police Commissioner in Tamilnadu, addressing the Media at headquarters in Chennaicity police.

by Arup Chanda reporting from Chennai

(January 29, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian)
A red alert has been sounded all over the state to arrest at least 50 LTTE militants, who recently infiltrated from Sri Lanka in the guise of refugees and gone missing from camps.

The “Q” branch of the police, which deals with terrorism, has placed their men at airports, railway stations and stepped up vigil in all coastal districts as these men were engaged in smuggling battle requirements and medical supplies for the LTTE. The sleuths are monitoring flights to Paris, London and Frankfurt where the LTTE has sympathisers.

The police came to know about the activities of these men after the arrest of a LTTE intelligence wing leader, Thambidurai Padmanabhan, from the outskirts of this city a fortnight ago.

He was arrested with seven other LTTE militants from Sri Lanka while they were hatching a conspiracy to kidnap EPRLF leader Varadaraja Perumal, who resides here. The EPRLF is a Tamil political party in Sri Lanka but opposed to the LTTE.

Padnabhan’s arrest revealed that the missing men from refugee camps were in fact LTTE operatives who are working under his directions.

An intelligence official said: “These men were earlier lodged in various refugee camps across the state and have now gone missing. These men were actually smuggling weapons, explosives and other battle gear for the LTTE by alluring local people with cash.”

There are 101 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu housing nearly 75,000 refugees from Sri Lanka, while there are 24,000 living within the mainstream Tamil society.

A total of 1,141 refugees have vanished since the outbreak of renewed war in the island nation. Records indicate that since January last year more than 20,000 refugees have arrived from Jaffna and more are still pouring in.

The official said: “Several of the LTTE militants arrive in the guise of refugees, earn the confidence of local policemen and other officials and keep moving out of the camps for procuring requirements for the Tigers.”

The situation is alarming particularly at the Mandapam camp in Ramanathapuram district that is close to Rameswaram, the closest point in India from Jaffna. This is one the oldest and largest refugee camps in the state.

Security officials in the area who keep a tab on militant activities said there was a network of refugees, local fishermen and some officials for acting as couriers for the Tigers. They said many of the refugees had multiple names and addresses.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to keep track of these people. We must get more support and intelligence inputs from the local population. Unfortunately, some of our fishermen are helping the militants, either for money or out of fear for the Tigers, to smuggle the contraband from many points down the coast,” they said.

Over the last several months security agencies have seized other than dry ration, clothes and medicines, large quantities of aluminum ingots, steel balls and explosive chemicals from this area. The seizures are just tip of an iceberg as there are thousands of boats belonging to fishermen in Mandapam and Rameswaram who fish in the deep waters inside Sri Lankan territory and many of them are used by the LTTE.