Sri Lanka hints at LTTE-Maoist links

A top Sri Lankan official said the rebel LTTE may have had links with the Maoists in India, days after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the left wing extremists were acquiring arms from abroad.

A top Sri Lankan official on Thursday said the rebel LTTE may have had links with the Maoists in India, days after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the left wing extremists were acquiring arms from abroad.

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"Going by the way they (LTTE) operate and plan things it is possible that they can have links with any terrorist organisation like the al-Qaeda and the Maoists," Rajeeva Wijesingha, secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, told PTI.

He said the links could have been there through training of operatives.

"Their (LTTE) motive is destabilisation of any country," Wijesingha said adding, slain Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran had a "visceral hatred" towards the Indian government.

In an interview to PTI on October 24, Chidambaram had said the Maoists were acquiring arms through Bangladesh, Myanmar and possibly Nepal.