Tamil Nadu and LTTE menace

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a designated terrorist organisation, is banned in India. Nevertheless, a deeply worrying mix of political collusion, official complacency, mercenary considerations, and corruption has enabled it to exploit Tamil Nadu both as a source of supply and a base of operations.

The chain of seizures by the Indian Navy, Coast Guard, and the State police over the past three months points strongly to the LTTE's use of Tamil Nadu coastal locations, especially landing points in the Rameswaram-Tuticorin-Cuddalore stretch, for a two-way terrorist traffic across the Palk Strait.

The Coast Guard's February 13 seizure in Indian waters, off Point Calimere, of a boat bearing an AK 56, five grenades, chemicals, and most sensationally a suicide jacket with belt, sent shock waves through India's security establishment. It was quickly established that the boat belonged to the LTTE's `naval' arm, the Sea Tigers, and its five-member crew included a `Black Tiger' operative and an Indian decoy to mislead security personnel.

But the big shock came with the delayed discovery that the boat was lined with a huge quantity of TNT explosives - enough to blow up a harbour or warships - and also carried detonators and a charger to trigger a gigantic explosion.

Indian intelligence officials apprehend that the LTTE boat, which according to the crew sailed from an islet off the Jaffna coast and came into Indian waters to avoid interception by the Sri Lankan Navy, could be one of several suicide bombing vessels.

As though this were not enough, the police have just unearthed an aluminium unit in Madurai that supplied the Tigers ingots for improvised explosive devices (IEDs); and arrested some members of the supply and smuggling network.

The discovery of the LTTE's reactivated network in south India was fortuitous, the chance outcome of a vehicle transporting boosters getting involved in a road accident near Madurai in November 2006.

With earlier developments in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh pointing to links with the Maoist groups, the surge in the smuggling and other clandestine activities of the Tigers and their supporters in Tamil Nadu is cause for major concern.

In an earlier era, the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi led to a swift crackdown that proved remarkably successful in ridding the State of the LTTE's network and presence. In the present context, with Sri Lanka on the boil, there must be zero tolerance of a weakened terrorist outfit's exploitation of Tamil Nadu as a supply and landing base.

It is a matter of concern that, instead of facing realities, the State's Director General of Police sought to downplay the significance of the Coast Guard's major catch by asserting (even before the investigation got under way) that the vessel was not heading for the Tamil Nadu coast and pleaded virtual helplessness in dealing with a porous coast.

The Central and Tamil Nadu governments need to shake themselves out of their complacency and respond urgently to the extremist menace.

The Hindu.

The Hindu editorial of February 22.