Ramnad steps up anti-Tiger vigil

Tamil Nadu’s coastal districts under investigators’ scrutiny:

INDIA: Indian authorities have intensified investigations into LTTE operations in the coastal district of Ramnad, which overlooks Mannar, just across the Palk Strait.

The biggest number of detections of explosives and war material destined for the LTTE has been made from Ramnad.

Since the start of 2007 until now, Indian authorities have seized unusually large volumes of ball bearings that are used as shrapnel, aluminium bars, both ordinary and electronic detonators, boat building equipment, walkie-talkies, batteries and petroleum products, a IANS report said.

Also found hidden or abandoned have been chemicals including sulphuric acid, high-speed outboard engines for boats, cycle spares, tires for cycles and motorcycles, power generators, and surgical equipment including medicines.

The seizures also include beedis - the poor man’s cigarette, now a prized commodity in Sri Lanka’s North. Some of the seizures run into tonnes. The detonators have been found in thousands.

The quantity of chemicals totals hundreds of litres. Arrests of couriers have been few in relation to the materials seized. Both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils have been involved, some for the larger cause and some purely for money.

Some of the seized goods were found buried or in safe houses. Others were simply abandoned when the police came too close to catching the messengers.

Security agencies from the Central and Tamil Nadu Governments are regularly confiscating from the coastal belt ammunition and dual use goods that officials say are destined for the LTTE.

“The fact that such large quantities are being seized is a sign that much larger quantities are being sought - an indicator of what the LTTE is looking for from the nearest land source in view of the damage suffered by its shipping lines,” A IANS report said.

Experts say the LTTE is using stuff smuggled from Tamil Nadu to prepare mines - one of the most lethal weapons in the conflict.

The LTTE uses the lure of its Tamil nationalist ideology and money to procure what it wants from Tamil Nadu, a state it knows well and one separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow strip of sea.

For anything and everything seized, it is safe to conclude that much more must be getting through to Sri Lanka.

According to Indian officials, the LTTE has also tried to build a huge vessel in Kerala and tried to procure mortars from Tamil Nadu.

As the war escalates, the Tigers’ dependence on Tamil Nadu is only expected to rise.