Tigers' desecration of places of worship

Those who are familiar with the sinister machinations of the LTTE are unlikely to be particularly perturbed at the news that Tigers are not only exploiting places of religious worship in the North-East for the furtherance of their military aims but are wantonly and mindlessly violating the sanctity of such places.

For, the LTTE considers nothing sacred and inviolable. Everything and anything would be trampled underfoot by the Tigers if their selfish ends are met.

Accordingly, not even places of religious worship would be spared by the Tigers if there are gains for them in such despicable acts.

In the latest round of such violations, the Tigers are said to be concealing arms caches in kovils and churches.

This trend is on the upswing because the aim of the Tigers is to pit the civilian population against the Security Forces. For, when the Tigers conceal arms and ammunition in sacred places, the Armed Forces are compelled to enter such locations for the purpose of securing these arms.

When this happens the chances are that the civilian public would see the Armed Forces as desecrating their places of worship. As a result, the civilians would be angered and regard the Armed Forces as an intrusive, enemy presence, thereby entering into a hostile relationship with the law enforcers.

This would amount to fulfilling a highly cherished aim of the LTTE because nothing would be more pleasing for the Tigers than a confrontation between the civilian public and the Armed Forces.

Therefore, nothing could be timelier than an awareness - raising effort to sensitize the civilians of the North-East to these issues. Desecration of sacred places is an outrage of the first order and cannot be condoned but the LTTE's ploy should be exposed to the civilian public to enable them to understand the compulsions and constraints under which the law enforcers act.

Come what may, law and order and national security must be established and sustained and the civilians of the North-East should be conscientized on these problems by the State, so that they would not fall for the Tigers' ruses.

However, it is also essential that the destructive role played by the Tigers is sharply focused on by the authorities. It is the LTTE which is brazenly violating the sacredness of places of worship by purposely planting their arms in them.

By doing so they are doing violence to the religious sensitivities of the people. This is all the more reason why the Tigers need to be viewed as both an exceedingly destructive and alien presence which needs to be defeated.

The policy of the State is to respect the sacredness and sanctity of all places of religious worship. This grows out of the reverence for such religious institutions, wherever they may be. Accordingly, the State would be doing the utmost to uphold the sanctity of all religious places of worship.

This policy must be freshly impressed on the public lest any misconceptions and misperceptions are created.