LTTE IS TURNING INTO A THREAT TO THE INTERNAL SECURITY OF INDIA CHARGES A FORMER RAW LEADER

By Rangajeeva Rajakaruna

B.Raman a former spy leader of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) said in a lecture delivered at the University ofMadras that the Liberation Tiger’s of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) poses a threat to India’s internal security. Delivering the endowment lecture under the auspices of the S. Parthasarathi IP Memorial Trust Raman said together with AlQueda related terrorist groups in India the LTTE or Tamil Tigers are a threat to the internal security of the country. Raman said the LTTE used to enjoy some support from sections of fellow Tamils in Tamil Nadu but this has declined after the assasination of Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister by a suicide bomber of the LTTE near Chennai in May 1991. “Despite this decline in public support,” Raman said, “the LTTE continues to use the Indian territory in Tamil Nadu for the procurement of material required for making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and other material such as medicines etc.” The naval and air capabilities of the LTTE are of great concern to India since they could pose a threat not only to the security of Sri Lanka, but also to peace and security in the region as a whole, Raman further emphasized.. India is presently facing the problem of ideological terrorism in the tribal belt of central India, ethnic tribal insurgency in its North-East bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar, separatist terrorism in parts of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and jihadi terrorism in J&K as well as certain other parts of India apart from the LTTE terrorism.. In the 1980s and the 1990s, it was also faced with the problem of Khalistani terrorism by some sections of the Sikh population in the Punjab, who wanted an independent State for themselves to be called Khalistan. Their activities have considerably declined since 1995, but some of their leaders continue to be active from their sanctuaries in Pakistan, he further charged.’