Of that mystery boat

Tuesday 15th June, 2021

Time was when Sri Lanka remained on high alert to prevent the movement of armed groups from Tamil Nadu, a haven for terrorists who brought boatloads of arms and ammunition here. It has now been reported that Tamil Nadu is worrying about such a security threat from this side of the Palk Strait; its police and the Indian Central intelligence agencies have reportedly been placed on the highest alert level following a warning that some armed persons from Sri Lanka are trying to enter India via the sea. Search operations are being conducted in several cities in Tamil Nadu and road blocks have been set up, we are told. Kerala is also reported to have adopted similar measures in view of the threat. However, the identities of the suspected infiltrators are not known, and they had not been intercepted or sighted at the time of going to press.

It is not clear from what has been reported of the security threat at issue whether the armed persons are from a terror group, or any other criminal outfit. Gunrunning and drug smuggling between India and Sri Lanka have been going on despite attempts by the two countries to stop them, but what has prompted Tamil Nadu to go on red alert cannot be a boat carrying weapons or drugs with some armed smugglers aboard; it is believed to be a boatload of armed persons presumably intent on carrying out an attack on Indian soil. This is a very serious situation that warrants a high-level probe here as well.

Sri Lankan underworld figures flee to India when the police close in on them here. Some of them have been arrested in India. Drug dealer and contract killer, Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera, alias Angoda Lokka, who fled Sri Lanka, fearing his capture, is believed to have died while hiding in India, last year. But such characters usually do not carry weapons while fleeing in boats; they travel disguised as fishers, and make good their escape in most cases. They have links to their counterparts in India, where they have protection, and therefore do not take the trouble of moving their weapons in boats and run the risk of being captured. Some attempts by the LTTE rump to smuggle explosive devices to this country have been foiled in South India since the end of the Vanni war, but there have been no reports of former Tigers trying to infiltrate India. Drug smugglers also do not carry weapons when they cross the Palk Strait; their operations are far more sophisticated.

So, who are the armed persons trying to reach India by boat? Are they members of a foreign terror group using Sri Lanka as a transit point? Some years ago, the Indian intelligence warned of the possibility of such terrorist operations. But what could such a foreign terror outfit achieve by sending a single boatload of armed cadres to India unless its goal is to carry out a one-off attack like the Easter Sunday carnage? Such a mission involves extremely high risks because it requires the movement of terrorists through Sri Lanka, where intelligence outfits have been on high alert since the Easter Sunday attacks, and the Sri Lankan Navy has also gone into overdrive to prevent illegal immigrants from India in view of the pandemic. It is doubtful whether any organised terror group will take unnecessary risks particularly at this juncture.

Sri Lanka’s reaction to the infiltration threat in question was not immediately known. Maybe, an investigation has already got underway here, and information thereof has not been disclosed. Everything possible must be done to get to the bottom of it. One hopes that both India and Sri Lanka will go flat out to catch the armed group, if any, trace the source of threat and do everything in their power to neutralise it forthwith.

The reported security threat to India ought to make the Sri Lankan authorities redouble their counterterror efforts without leaving anything to chance. There could be more to it than meets the eye. The previous government chose to ignore a warning in 2019, and the price the country paid for that blunder was huge.