At least 20 persons have now been arrested in connection with the attack on an Indian Army convoy in South India, by pro-LTTE groups, reports from, Coimbatore state. Eight persons, including a woman, were arrested by the police on Sunday (May 03) in connection with the attack on the Army convoy at the Neelambur bypass road junction here on Saturday (May 02) evening, when five persons were arrested for the attack late on Saturday.
The attack took place when over 270 personnel of the 4 Field Regiment, stationed at Madukkarai, were returning from Secunderabad after training. Activists of the pro-LTTE Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (PDK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) intercepted the convoy, alleging that the troops, arms and ammunition were being moved to either Kochi or Thiruvananthapuram for onward movement to Sri Lanka to assist its army in the current military operations against the LTTE, Indian media reports said. The troops, along with materials, were being brought back in a convoy of 84 trucks.
The attackers smashed the windscreens of some Army vehicles and deflated the tyres. They also set ablaze some articles it removed from a truck. Some journalists were injured in the melee.
The police clarified that the troops, arms and ammunitions were only sent to Madukkarai and not to Sri Lanka via Kerala.
The Hindu Online reported that cases have been registered against 200 people belonging to political groups sympathetic to the LTTE, banned in India as a terrorist organization, and responsible for the assassination of former Congress Party leader and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The arrested include PDK leader and extreme Tamil nationalist K. Ramakrishnan.
Pro-LTTE political parties and activists are increasing efforts to bring the issue of the LTTE and Tamils in Northern to the fore in the current elections to the Lok Sabha, due to conclude on May 13, with Tamil Nadu being among the last states to poll.
The leader of the AIADMK Jayalalitha who is vying for the Tamil vote in Tamil Nadu with DMK leader Karunanidhi has of late been actively promoting the setting of a separate Tamil state of Eelam in Sri Lanka, which is the goal of the LTTE. A PTI story from Coimbatore said Jayalalitha had at a polls rally asked why India cannot assist in carving out a separate Eelam in Sri Lanka, if Indira Gandhi had helped create Bangladesh from the former East Pakistan.
Courtesy: Policy Research & Information Unit of the Presidential Secretariat of Sri Lanka
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