Lurking danger?

Thursday 2nd September, 2021

Investigations into three Sri Lankan boats carrying drugs and arms, intercepted in Indian waters, has shed light on an attempt to revive the LTTE, according to the Indian media. A probe conducted by the National Investigations Agency (NIA) following the seizure of a haul of heroin, five AK-47 assault rifles and 1,000 rounds of ammunition from a boat taken into custody off the coast of Vizhinjam in Kerala has led to speculation that an international drug trafficking and gun running outfit is attempting to revive the LTTE, which was militarily neutralised here in 2009.

The main suspect, Suresh Rajan, a resident of Colombo, arrested in India, has been found to have links to international drug smugglers. He is said to have associated with Makandure Madush, a notorious Sri Lankan drug dealer, who died a few months ago in a shootout while being in police custody. The Tamil Nadu intelligence officers have confirmed that Rajan and Madush worked together. (It looks as though Sri Lanka’s ethnic reconciliation were limited to the nether world of crime and narcotics! There have been numerous reports of the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims carrying out underworld activities unitedly.)

This is not the first time investigations conducted by the Indian authorities have given rise to speculation that some groups are striving to revive the LTTE. In August 2018, the Indian media reported that the Rameswaram police had, in a mid-night raid, arrested seven suspects with 5,000 explosive-filled detonators, which were to be smuggled into Sri Lanka.

The findings of the aforesaid NIA investigation should be viewed against the backdrop of an intelligence warning that put India on high alert in June. The Central intelligence agencies and the Tamil Nadu police stepped up vigil following a warning that a boat carrying an armed group from Sri Lanka was trying to enter India. There were no follow-up reports, and it is likely that the boat could not be traced. Was it also involved in drug trafficking and gun running like the one caught off Vizhinjam?

The Indian investigators have established that Rajan and an associate of his, known as Soundaranan, have contacts with LTTE sympathisers involved in attempts to revive the LTTE.

The probe teams believe that the five AK-47 rifles seized from the boat were for the LTTE sleeper cells. However, they have not yet found out whether there is already a revival of the LTTE in Sri Lanka or Tamil Nadu, or a group is earning money in the guise of reviving the LTTE. This reminds us of a warning some Indian experts issued a few months after Prabhakaran’s death, in 2009. They were quoted by the Indian media as having said that there was ‘a tug-of-war in the drug world to grab Prabhakaran’s multi-million-dollar drug cartel’, and there was the possibility of terrorist groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba stepping in to fill the vacuum. Swaraj Puri, former Director General of India’s Narcotics Control Board said the LTTE’s drug smuggling activities had been stalled, after its military defeat in Sri Lanka, but other drug lords would vie for the market the LTTE had created. Is it that the situation the Indian experts warned of is now playing out?

It is now clear that Sri Lanka is being used as a narcotic and gunrunning hub by some dangerous groups with international links. Colombo must go flat out with the help of New Delhi and Tamil Nadu to bust this drug and arms smuggling network, which is a threat to not only this country but also the entire region.

Meanwhile, the possibility of hibernating terror groups, the world over, reviving and the active ones stepping up their operations cannot be ruled out, because their morale is now very high. America’s recent humiliating exit from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s stunning comeback must have inspired these violent groups beyond measure. When the self-appointed global policeman runs like Forrest Gump, terrorist groups may think they can achieve their goals by unleashing more violence.