Defence Column

LTTE plans go awry as Forces take strict measures

Desperate attempts by Tigers to involve international community:

Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Many people described the incidents that unfolded a day prior to the 60th Independence day celebrations and after that in many parts of the country as Independence Day Carnage or Independence Horror by the LTTE.

Everybody has the liberty to give any definition to any of these incidents whether it happens in Colombo or in Dambulla or any other part in the country.

But they should be aware of the background to these desperate acts of the LTTE.

What has to be highlighted here is that the Security Forces and the defence authorities were expecting this type of scenario in Colombo and other parts of the country many years ahead of the things are happening now in Colombo.

All these incidents took place well within the parameters of the Security Forces threat assessments and also well within the expected list of terror plans of the LTTE at this decisive moment.

Therefore, many of the incidents were averted and a handful of incidents which were beyond the control of the Security Forces took place.

It was unfortunate that 20 innocent civilians were killed in Dambulla bus bomb explosion, another 14 people including nine school children at the Fort Railway station, the main rail transport hub in Colombo and another 15 people at Y junction Weli Oya on Independence Day.

Apart from this there had been minor explosions in Galge, Dehiwela, Mount Lavinia, Moratuwa and Chilaw which caused comparatively minor damages.

However, analysts have seen enough bloodbaths in Colombo and outside Colombo to describe these events as Independence Day horror or Carnage by the LTTE.

But one thing that has to recalled here is that the LTTE was not able to reach their target of cancelling the scheduled plan of the Government to celebrate the 60th Independence Day celebrations like in 1998.

Unlike 1996 and 1998, this time they could not carry out their terror acts in accordance with their comprehensive terror plans to drive truck bombs (Central Bank explosion, January 31, 1996) in the heart of Colombo and at the highly secured sacred Sri Dalada Maligawa (January 26, 1998) in Kandy.

In short the LTTE could not achieve what they expected, though they were able to explode a few bombs including human bombs in some parts of the country deploying their cadres at its minimum.

Even the suicide woman cadre who blew herself inside the Fort railway station could not reach her expected target. She had blown herself as Police in civvies were about to arrest her after following her movements for hours.

Though the female suicide cadre was not successful in her operation for the LTTE, it created many opportunities for Southern critics to raise their voice.

Now it is the time for human rights activists and pro-LTTE organisations to raise their anti-war slogans in Colombo citing the damage caused to innocent civilians in the South.

They will shed crocodile tears over the deaths of these innocent civilians including the innocent pilgrims to Anuradhapura and the seven students of the baseball team of D.S. Senanayake Vidyalaya, Colombo to assist the LTTE to achieve its objective.

But they simply ignore the fact that the Security Forces and Defence authorities and the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration had passed many such stages in their fight against LTTE terrorism.

And they faced same criticism over and over again from the main Opposition, the Human Rights activists and from the international communities when they boldly took the initiative to wage war against LTTE terrorism.

The fact that has to be borne in mind here is that they all became partners of the LTTE and directly or indirectly extended their support to the Tiger outfit after becoming the Southern voice of the LTTE to carry their message to the international community.

The LTTE manipulated these organisations effectively to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka and to bring pressure on the Government to stop the strict measures taken in Colombo to control the terror networks of the LTTE.

The Security Forces and the Police were able to control terror acts of the Tigers in Colombo at a time they were threatening the South with bloodbaths and genocidal attacks if the Security launched military operation in the East and the North.

The Tigers had a well organised network in Colombo established under the guise of the Ceasefire Agreement to mislead the media and the international community by planting their cadres as members of the Tamil families living in Colombo to support their terror acts.

The Security Forces had taken stock of this situation and taken the initiative to control the terror acts thinking far ahead of the threat that can be exposed at a time Security Forces are engaged in military operations in the North and the East.

If not for the strict measures taken by the Security Forces, by conducting cordon and search operations on a regular basis and also removing unwanted people from Colombo mainly from Colombo lodges the city would have witnessed a much bigger carnage months back at a time when Security Forces recorded their victories in the East.

In the same way if the Security Forces bowed down to Human Rights organisations who challenged the Security Forces and the Police for abducting people and violating human rights of the innocent Tamil civilians, they could not have averted major terror plans of the LTTE in Colombo.

But the LTTE was capable enough to control these strict measures taken by the Security Forces with the support of the Southern political parties and also HR organisations to get the Criminal Investigation Department to question intelligence operatives of the Security Forces and expose them before Courts as HR violators.

That was at the peak in which the Security Forces were strictly controlling the terror operations in Colombo and Southern parts of the country arresting many of the sleeper LTTE cadres inducted by the LTTE.

With the legal impediments created by the LTTE by using many cats’ paws, in the form of court rulings and by way of exposing intelligence operatives, the pressure on the LTTE was somewhat relaxed in Colombo during the past few months.

The Tiger outfit took these lapses to smuggle in explosives, suicide cadres and sometimes weapons to Colombo and Colombo suburbs for their terror operations.

Therefore, those who shed crocodile tears over the arrest of suspicious Tamil civilians and also raised their voice against the strict security measures in Colombo should also share the responsibility of creating an insecure environment in Colombo before they point a finger at the Security Forces and the Police.

Police investigations into the seizure of suicide jackets in Mabole, Wattala on February 1, two days prior to the Independence Day celebrations also indicate how they were shrewdly operating to smuggle suicide jackets taking the assistance of the priests from fundamentalist religious sects.

It was two Civil Defence Force personnel K.M. Gunapala and R.M. Gunawardena deployed Mabole area arrested a suspicious LTTE cadre close to Colour Guard Company, Mabole around 8.30 a.m.

They were able to arrest one suspect Velupillai Gangadharan after a women tipped off them about two people who had left a parcel there at Mabole. The parcel contained two suicide kits, eight detonators, eight batteries, six timers and remote controllers which had been transported to Mabole area to be given to a person called Suresh.

Due to the prompt action of the Seeduwa Police after informing the road blocks, Police were able to arrest the person suspected to have transported them to Mabole area in a van bearing no. 57-7399 at the road block at Kala Oya around 1 p.m.

The arrested person was later identified at a Pastor of a church in Mannar which is a branch of Four Square Church, a fundamentalist sect.

The Pastor had divulged that he had dropped four more people in Matale and Nuwara Eliya prior to his arrival at Mabole to drop two other people on February 1. The suicide jackets they brought to Mabole had been given to them by a person from Nuwara Eliya.

Police who conducted further investigations into the incident also revealed that the priest identified as Nagulan had transported arms to Colombo concealed inside the seats of his van earlier too. After searching the Church at Pahankammukotte in Mannar Forces had recovered three suicide kits, two claymore mines and three magnet bombs.

These investigations indicate that the LTTE is using all possible means to create mayhem in Colombo and bring pressure on the Government to put a stop on the military thrust on the Wanni front.

Apart from they also want to create communal violence in the South to further justify their fight for a separate Tamil state.

But the desperate bomb explosions in the South is not the only means they are trying to use to instigate the international community against the Sri Lankan Government.

The LTTE once again made another desperate attempt to get the Indian Government into the conflict by firing at Navy boats taking the cover of the thousands of Indian fishing boats poaching in the Sri Lankan territorial waters.

The incident took place four Kilometres north of Thalai Mannar. According to the Navy, two trawlers poaching in the Sri Lankan waters asked for help from the sailors operating north of Thalai Mannar.

As two of the Navy built Inshore Patrol Craft were reaching the two trawlers one IPC came under RPG attack from the Indian boats.

The Navy had not fired at the fishing boats concerned over the safety of the Indian fishermen engaged in fishing. Due to this situation six of the sailors had to sacrifice their lives amidst the fire from the side of fishing trawlers.

Once again the LTTE is trying its best to antagonise the Indian authorities and the Sri Lankan Government using this sensitive issue of Indian poachers which has been in existence for the past few decades without seeing any solution.

The LTTE made such an attempt early last year too by hijacking Indian fishing trawlers to smuggle arms. But, the entire episode was exposed when the Maldivian Navy detected the suspected Indian fishing trawler hijacked by the LTTE for arms smuggling purposes.

However, Navy Commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda has raised the issue of Indian fishermen poaching in the Sri Lankan waters with the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka as possibilities are very high for the LTTE to use this sensitive issue to achieve their task.

The LTTE will also create fear psychosis among the public by means of wild rumours through e-mails, sms and other communications methods.

In these circumstances people should be vigilant without falling to the trap laid by the LTTE by believing in those wild rumours aimed at paralysing the civil society to take the upper hand on the situation.

Therefore, it is high time the citizens in this country thought twice about the highly sensitive period the country is undergoing at this decisive juncture considering the achievements made by the Security Forces in the Wanni battlefront, sacrificing their lives and limbs to free the country from the clutches of terrorism.