No action should be taken to weaken war on terror

Inderjit Badhwar

In view of persistent and credible reports that the Indian government is pressuring the Sri Lankan Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to call for an immediate ceasefire in its battle against the LTTE, we respectfully urge our Government not to take any action that would weaken the war on terror because of partisan politics or regional considerations.

Such a step would weaken our own case against terrorism in the eyes of the world. The LTTE has been banned and proscribed by most countries including India whose Prime Minister it brutally assassinated as among the world’s most ruthless terror group that has tried to enforce its separatist writ over peace loving Sri Lankan Tamils through mass murder.

We understand the angst of Indian Tamils over the plight of their community in Northern Sri Lanka, many of whom have become refugees in their own country, and victims of the war.

But the way to ensure that their immediate difficulties are eased, their long - standing legitimate grievances are respected, and that they enjoy autonomy within a united Sri Lanka, is to free them first from the scourge of the LTTE and then encourage President Rajapaksa to establish democracy in the North as he has done in the liberated East where a Tamil (formerly an LTTE activist) now heads the provincial government. The Sri Lankan Army, for the first time in decades, is closing in on the LTTE’s last stronghold in Killinochchi.

At a time when India is seeking world support in its battle against terrorism, and SAARC countries have passed strong resolutions against terror, it is unwise and untenable that India - because of political domestic compulsions should be interfering in the internal strategic affairs of a sister SAARC country that is on the verge of succeeding in disabling a terrorist outfit that has held the island nation and the region to ransom for more than two decades.

(Inderjit Badhwar (Author and Editor), Seshadri Chari (Former Editor, Organiser), Ambassador Niranjan Desai (Former Head of ICCR)

Countesy: Times of India