Lanka gives a pat to MK Narayanan

Much to Lanka's delight, the Indian NSA says that LTTE may be misusing stock markets, reports PK Balachandran.

Sri Lanka is happy that India's National Security Advisor MK Narayanan has drawn the world's attention to the possibility of terrorist groups like the LTTE misusing the stock market and other legitimate investment facilities to fund their subversive activities.

HT Image

"The disclosure is a blessing to the whole world," Sri Lanka's Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told Hindustan Times here on Friday.

Narayanan had not said that the LTTE had investments in India, whether in the stock market or outside, but he did say that it ran legitimate businesses like shipping and restaurants in various parts of the world.

Sri Lankans have long been aware that the LTTE uses legitimate businesses to earn, hide and launder money, but the possibility of its using the stock market has come as a revelation.

That neighbouring India has discovered this and is going to take counter measures is good news, because, of late, there has been an increase in the clandestine flow of arms into Sri Lanka from India for the LTTE, and Colombo has had to take this up with New Delhi at the highest level.

LTTE forms Sinhala terror group

In a startling revelation on Friday, the state owned Daily News said that the Tamil Tigers had gone beyond recruiting Tamils to fight on its behalf, and had begun to train and deploy a Sinhala extremist group called "Revolutionary Liberation Organisation," to destabilise the Sinhala-speaking South Sri Lanka.

Confirming this to Hindustan Times Defence Spokesman Rambukwella said: "We came to know about this from the 12 Sinhala youths detained so far."

"This is the first case of Sinhalas working actively for the LTTE," he added.  

According to Daily News, one of the arrested youth, Mola Seneviratne, told interrogators that the primary aim of the new organisation was to "prevent the country from falling into the hands of imperialists."

The Sinhala extremists have traditionally considered India as an imperialistic country waiting to swallow Sri Lanka.

Therefore, this group exploded bombs in the petrol stations of the Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) at Piliyandala, Kadawatha and Mount Lavinia.

But soon, the LTTE developed cold feet and ordered a stop, as such bombings would antagonise India.