'Prabhakaran a terrorist as far as India is concerned'

"As far as the Indian Government is concerned, the LTTE is a terrorist organisation and Prabhakaran is a terrorist.

The Government and Congress party consider the LTTE to be responsible for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. We would expect Lanka to hand Prabhakaran over to us. Karunanidhi's remarks saying "Prabhakaran is not a terrorist" are his personal," Congress party spokesperson Kapil Sibal said.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka termed Karunanidhi's remarks as a poll stunt and said the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was a "Chanakya" trying to exploit the issue for electoral gains.

Karunanidhi is a Chanakya. He knows what to say and when. Not that he is not aware of Prabhakaran's attitude, Minister for Social Service and Social Welfare Douglas Devananda, was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency. Devananda said it was "shrewd diplomacy" in the backdrop of elections in India.

"One should know that Prabhakaran has kept nearly 70,000 innocent Tamil civilians as hostage and using them as a human shield," Devananda, who is the Chairman of the Task Force for Rehabilitation and Development of North (Sri Lanka), said.

The LTTE is known to be one of the most dreaded terror groups in the world involved in many civilian killings, including the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

IBNLive.com