Malaysia orders a countrywide alert on fleeing tiger supremo Prabhakaran

(By Walter Jayawardhana)

Malaysian Inspector General of Police Musa Hassan told Kula Lumpur's Strait Times that he has ordered a country wide alert to be on the watch out for Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The alert was issued on the suspicion that he may have escaped to Malaysia after Sri Lankan troops surrounded his last stronghold, Mulaitivu in a 50,000 strong force.

The Malaysian Police Chief told the newspaper that there was a suspicion that Prabhakaran might have escaped to Malaysia or the neighbouring Thailand.

There is a strong Sri Lankan Tamil minority in Malaysia and it is alleged that a strongly pro-LTTE politician in India has been maintaining coordinating activities between the rebel outfit and the Malaysian Tamils.

"We are also using our local intelligence network to ascertain if he is already in the country," Musa was quoted as saying to the Strait Times. "My men will be monitoring all entry points into the country to ensure he does not enter the country," he added.

There had been many speculations in the press about the whereabouts of Prabhakaran after Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Sri Lanka Army , last Saturday said, that Prabhakaran might have already escaped Mulaitivu. He has said that the only possible withdrawal of the Tigers could be to the sea in reply to a supporting politician of the Tamil Tigers that they had withdrawn as a tactical strategy to Mulaitivu.

Military analysts have predicted that all camps of the Tigers could be overrun within the matter of few weeks by the Sri Lanka forces.