LTTE poses threat to Maharashtra

Anupam Dasgupta

INDIA: Movement of LTTE cadres and sympathisers may pose some real security-related problems to Maharashtra. According to security officials, the LTTE terrorists have recently started looking beyond the shores of Tamil Nadu and other Southern States.

With jihadi terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), having already trained their guns on Maharashtra, the LTTE factor could just add and that "extra fizz" to the deadly cocktail.

The arrest of Miraj Shahib Ismail, on Saturday, for supplying a large number of ball-bearings - often used as bomb splinters (procured in the Null Bazaar area of Mumbai), to the LTTE terrorists is a startling revelation.

It now appears that Miraj knew that the consignment was headed for Sri Lanka. Sources in the security establishment said that the arrest proved beyond doubt the fact that the LTTE terrorists is casting the net far and wide in its search for raw material (for kneading explosives) and weapons; and Maharashtra/Mumbai could just be a natural choice for them.

Mumbai could provide ample raw material (for example, the ball-bearings made in this automobile parts manufacturing hub) and "sympathisers" who can work under the cloak of anonymity.

Intelligence sources said, with the Naxalites getting weapons re-routed to them by the surrendering Maoist guerrillas in Nepal the situation could only worsen, if the LTTE sets its eyes on the state.

Though there is increasing evidence that the LTTE is getting arms and spare-parts across India, the Sri Lankan authorities have not confirmed any recent big mid-sea or landing-point seizures to directly link the LTTE terrorists to smuggling.

However, a Vision Document prepared by the state government, sometime back, clearly referred to established links between indigenous Naxalite groups and the LTTE terrorists. The document, which DNA has access to, details methods to effectively curtail Left-wing extremism across the northern fringes of Maharashtra.

The LTTE is banned in Sri Lanka, India, the US, the UK, Canada and Malaysia. State Director General of Police, PS Pasricha told DNA recently, "We will go all out to beef up security along the coastline. Our marine policing set up will go a long way in doing that."

Courtesy DNA India