THREE men were arrested in dawn raids today after counter-terrorist officers from London and Mid Wales after and operation tracking the Tamil Tigers terrorist movement.

Officers say two of the group, linked to the Asian terrorist network, were from Newtown, Powys, while the other was from South London.The Tigers, who are a terrorist group fighting for an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka, have been linked to organising a string credit card frauds around Wales and the UK.The notorious gang are also believed to have targeted more than 200 independent petrol stations in the UK last year, where they approached night cashiers who worked alone at petrol stations, paying them large sums of money if they agreed to fit the cloning equipment to card readers and share information from customers.

Scotland Yard said dawn raids took place at houses and businesses in Newtown and Mitcham, south-west London, this morning.A  police spokesman confirmed that two men, aged 39 and 46, were arrested at separate addresses in Newtown, and a third, aged 33, was held in Mitcham, London.All three men were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.They will be questioned later today at high security Paddington Green police station in central London.

The spokesman added: "At 6.30am today officers from Counter Terrorism Command supported by Dyfed-Powys Police executed search warrants at a number of residential and business addresses in Newtown, Powys.  "Further warrants were executed at addresses in Mitcham and Surrey. Three men were arrested."A 46-year-old and 39-year-old were arrested at separate addresses in Powys and a 33-year-old was arrested in Mitcham on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

"This is part of a long-term investigation into alleged funding and procurement activity in support of terrorism overseas and two people have already been charged in connection with this investigation."It is not linked to al Qaida-type activity or inspired terrorism. It is in relation to support, procurement and fundraising for a proscribed organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers)."A Dyfed Powys Police spokeswoman reassured the public today that there was no cause for alarm following the arrests in Powys.

She confirmed that the force was supporting the Metropolitan Police in an operation to arrest two men in Wales under the Terrorism Act and the search of properties in Newtown."We would like to reassure our communities that arrests of this nature in the force area are rare and they should not be unduly alarmed," she added.

"The investigation is not linked to al Qaida and we don’t believe there was a risk to the local community.

"We would like to stress that this inquiry relates to alleged fundraising and procurement in support of terrorism overseas."We have the neighbourhood, local officers and the mobile police station in the Newtown area in a bid to keep the community informed and reassured.

"A letter drop to properties close to the search areas has also been carried out."The searches may go on for some time and we will do everything to minimise disruption to the local communities.

Vigilant civilians avert terrorists attack - Galgamuwa

A cowardly bloodbath planned by LTTE terrorists was foiled as vigilant civilians in the Galgamuwa town, found a bomb inside a crowded bus stand this morning. According to the police sources in the area two T-81mm mortar bombs were found trapped with a timer around 6 am. The timer had been fixed to explode the bombs around 7.30 am when some 7000 schoolchildren throng into the area, said the sources.

According to the police, "the bombs were wrapped in a brown paper sheets and placed inside a cardboard box as to show it as a gift pack. Unless for the vigilant civilians and for the efficient police officers in the area, hundreds of civilians including schoolchildren would have been killed, the sources added.

LTTE is a ruthless terrorist organization fighting for a mono ethnic separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka since 1983. The outfit's most favoured target in it s cowardly attacks has been civilians, particularly the women and children. The outfit has murdered tens and thousands of innocent civilians in village massacres, bus bombings, train bombings, and suicide bomb attacks.

defence.lk

27 Apr 2008 - 13:00

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Saturday that a bomb that killed 26 bus passengers showed Tamil Tiger Terrorists were resorting to desperate measures as they faced growing pressure on the battlefield in the north.

The blast tore through a bus filled with rush hour passengers Friday evening in the Colombo suburb of Piliyandala. The dead included a Buddhist monk and a 10-year-old child, the government said. Another 64 people were injured.

In a statement issued Saturday, Rajapaksa said the attack showed "the terrorists had once again resorted to killing innocent civilians in the face of heavy setbacks on the battlefield."

In the most ferocious recent clash, scores of troops were killed and more than 100 were wounded in a battle along the front lines Wednesday that was widely considered a disaster for the military.

Fighting Friday in the Welioya, Mannar and Vavuniya fronts in the north killed 21 terrorists, the military said. Troops also won control of a Roman Catholic Church in Madhu on Friday after the LTTE terrorists abandoned the area.

The bus attack Friday evening was the first major attack on civilians since a suicide bomber killed 14 people, including a government minister and a former Olympian, at the start of a marathon April 6.

The bomb Friday was hidden in a parcel on the baggage rack of the bus, the military said. It sent pieces of seats hurtling to the street, shattered windows of nearby buildings and nearly ripped the roof off the vehicle.

Ambulances with sirens wailing flooded to a nearby hospital, where off-duty doctors and nurses ran in to help the injured. One hospital was so overwhelmed it stopped accepting more wounded and diverted them to a second medical center.

LTTE terrorists commit bloodbath against civilians; 24 killed  and over 40 wounded - Piliyandala

LTTE terrorists have carried out a cowardly bomb attack targeting innocent civilians who were returning home after office hours at Pliyandala this evening.  According to the police sources, the bomb has been exploded inside a Ceylon Transport Board bus  at Piliyandala public bus stand. 24 people including a Buddhist incumbent  have been killed and over 40 people have suffered injuries, the sources added.

Most of the victims received injuries were admitted to the teaching hospital at Kalubowila while other were rushed to the Piliyandala hospital, sources added.

The explosion occurred when the bus just taken out from the stand for moving its destination, Kahapola, sources further said.    

LTTE is a ruthless terrorist outfit notorious for committing crimes against innocent civilians. In its pursuit for a mono ethnic separate homeland for Tamils, the outfit has killed and maimed over tens and innocent people in routine bus bombing , train bombing, village massacres and etc.

Let's be clear --Tamil Tigers are the terrorists in Sri Lanka

43 soldiers and about 100 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were killed in the bloodiest clash since the army began almost daily attacks to capture the last bases held by the Ltte terrorists in the north.

As many as 33 soldiers are ``yet to marry up with the rest of the troops'' after the fighting in the Muhamalai region of the northern Jaffna Peninsula yesterday, the army said in a statement. The army broke the LTTE's defense line in the area, the Defense Ministry said.

Tiger terrorist spokesman Ilanthirayan,  The Tamil Tigers lost 16 fighters, he said.But,,Intercepted rebel radio communications revealed that more than 100 terroritst fighters were killed, the Defense Ministry cited Brigadier Udaya Nanyakkara as saying. A total of 84 soldiers were wounded in the fighting and airlifted to Colombo for treatment, it said.

23 Apr 2008 - 13:00

Jaffna theatre of battle heated up since early this morning (April 23), as Sri Lanka army 55 and 53 divisions put- on stiff resistance to an LTTE embarked fresh offensives at the Army forwards defences on the Muhamalai and Kilaly frontiers. According to the defence sources in Jaffna heavy fighting broke out between troops and LTTE since 2 am this morning, as troops mounted retaliatory attacks at the offensive LTTE formations.

According to latest information LTTE suffered severe beating and were pushed some 500m back from its initial positions. Seizing the opportunity SLA broke the LTTE's first line of defence in the Muhamalai front, and are now engaged in consolidating the defence lines, security sources said.

So far, 38 soldiers have laid their lives while 84 suffered injuries and some of them have been air lifted to Colombo national hospital. Meanwhile, monitored radio communications and ground sources have confirmed that 52 LTTE terrorists have been killed and many injured in the latest skirmishes in Jaffna, Military Spokesperson Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Courtesy :defence.lk

23 Apr 2008 - 12:00

Ken Livingstone has addressed a meeting co-organised by a "front" for a banned terror organisation - even though he had been warned at the highest diplomatic levels about the group's alleged terrorist links.

The Mayor sought backing from the British Tamil Forum at the meeting in Harrow on Saturday, according to its spokesman.

The forum is accused by the Sri Lankan government of being a front for the Tamil Tigers, which wages an armed struggle for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka and is banned in Britain under anti-terrorism laws.

A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in London told the Standard that the High Commissioner, Kshenuka Senewiratne, wrote to Mr Livingstone "early last week" to express her "concerns" about his intention to speak to the forum.

"The British Tamil Forum is one of the main front organisations for the Tamil Tigers in the UK," the spokesman said. "We did not know whether the Mayor knew what the background to the meeting was so the High Commissioner wrote to inform him." Mr Livingstone never replied, the spokesman said.

At a previous meeting organised by the British Tamil Forum, at the Excel Centre, Docklands, on 27 November, a video message from the Tamil Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, praising suicide bombing was played and a collection was taken for Tamil Tiger "martyrs". The meeting is the subject of a police anti-terror investigation.

The Tamil Tigers, officially known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, pioneered suicide bombing.

They have been responsible for numerous attacks in Sri Lanka, including a military assault on the country's main airport in 2001 which caught almost 50 British tourists in the crossfire.

Although indiscriminate violence has also been carried out by the Sri Lankan government, Tamil Tiger suicide attacks alone have killed around 1,600 people, including the Sri Lankan president and the Indian prime minister.

Suren Surendiran, a spokesman for the British Tamil Forum, said that last weekend's meeting was co-organised by the forum and a local Tamil Labour councillor, Thaya Iddaikadar.

"The forum was involved (in the organisation of the meeting)," he said. "About 20 per cent of the people at the meeting were from the British Tamil Forum and the rest were local Tamils."

Mr Surendiran said the Mayor was asked a question about the Sri Lankan High Commission's claims that the forum was a Tamil Tiger front. "He said the Metropolitan Police came under him and where there was a legitimate request for a legitimate event his office would always be supportive," Mr Surendiran said.

The Mayor also gave the forum his "personal commitment" that he would support its candlelit vigil in Trafalgar Square this summer to mark the 25th anniversary of "Black July," a massacre of Tamil civilians triggered by a Tamil Tiger attack on a military convoy.

About 1,000 Tamils were killed in this bloodshed, which is generally seen as the trigger for Sri Lanka's civil war. Mr Surendiran said the forum "shares the same aspirations as the Tamil Tigers, but we do not subscribe to their methodology". Mr Livingstone's campaign has been dogged by allegations that he is too closely linked to organisations which sympathise with terrorists.

Yesterday, the Standard told how he had appointed a former member of a banned Sikh terrorist organisation, Dabinderjit Singh, to the board of TfL.

Last week it emerged that one of Mr Livingstone's leading Muslim supporters is closely connected to the Islamic militant group Hamas.

21 Apr 2008 - 18:00

The Army categorically and unreservedly ridicules LTTE's blatant attempts to discredit and blame its troops for Sunday (20) afternoon murder of the Rev Fr M.X. Karunaratnam when he was on Mallavi-Vavunikulam road in un-cleared areas, about 50 kms to the north of Wanni in Mullaithivu district.

The LTTE upon this unfortunate demise, as is the case in many instances, has been hell-bent on feeding their mouthpieces worldwide and attributes the incident to the Army, with a view to tarnishing its image and trying to hold it responsible for this crime, particularly in the wake of negative criticism the LTTE was receiving regarding the recent holy Madhu church episode.

Late Rev Fr Karunaratnam, well known as "Father Kili" among LTTE cadres serves the North-East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESoHR) and has been provided an LTTE security escort whenever he travels in un-cleared areas, the intelligence has confirmed. Equally, he has expressed concerns about violation of Human Rights in un-cleared areas.

Likewise, the place of the attack on the clergy in un-cleared areas is situated, about 50 kms away from the nearest security detachment in cleared areas where no troops of the Army are operating.

Reliable information in the aftermath of this assassination further re-affirmed the fact that the clergy was with a leading Tiger (LTTE) member, called "Yogan" who was formally with the LTTE Sea Tiger wing when the incident occurred.

Therefore, the Army while unequivocally condemning the brutal murder, which bears all the hallmarks of LTTE brutality, and further points to probable internecine feuds, flatly refuses LTTE's shrewd and baseless allegations, leveled at the Army which has nothing to do with the killing of an innocent clergy.

Courtesy - Army Media

Canada seizes two outposts of Sri Lankan terrorist group

Canadian federal police say they have uncovered two North American outposts of a Sri Lankan terrorist organization described by the FBI as one of the "most dangerous and deadly" extremist groups in the world.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) seized two office buildings and bank accounts in Toronto and Montreal used to raise funds for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to documents unsealed this week in federal court in Canada.

The LTTE, designated as a terrorist organization by the RCMP and the U.S. State Department, has sought for more than three decades to violently break away from Sri Lanka and create an independent state for the ethnically divided island's Tamil minority.

Also known as the Tamil Tigers, the group has killed 4,000 people through suicide bombings and political assassinations over the past two years, according to the FBI.

Canadian and U.S. authorities said the LTTE has established the outposts to help fund and equip its struggle against the Sri Lankan government.

The Washington Times last week quoted the FBI saying the organization also had set up operations in Maryland, New York and New Jersey.

Although the buildings and bank accounts in Montreal and Toronto were seized last week, the information was not made public until a court ordered it to be released. The RCMP said the properties and accounts were used by the World Tamil Movement, which it described as a cover organization for the LTTE.

"We believe that the building [in Montreal] was used to finance terrorist activities in Sri Lanka — that's why it was seized," said Cpl. Elaine Lavergne of the RCMP office in Montreal. No charges have been filed.

In a letter addressed to both the US State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sri Lanka’s embassy in Washinton has strongly protested over the screening of pro-LTTE film ‘My daughter the terrorists,’ sources said.

The film, a documentary on the lives and faiths of two female Tamil Tigers produced by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad, was featured in a documentary film festival in Durham, North Carolina on April 4. According to film critics the film was a blatant propaganda exercise glorifying suicide bombers and terrorism in Sri Lanka. They are of the view that these types of films would encourage would-be suicide bombers to join terrorist organizations that are a threat to the interests of the United States and other democratically elected Governments.

“Earlier, the Sri Lanka embassy in Washington has urged the authorities of the US State Department and the FBI to take appropriate measures in preventing screening of the controversial film during the four-day festival,” Foreign Media reported earlier this month.

The film is said to be a distortion of exploitation of the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, an official statement said in Colombo.

“My daughter the terrorist” has audaciously portrayed a 12-year-old Tamil girl’s path towards becoming a suicide bomber, trained and brain-washed by the LTTE terrorist movement, the release quoted sources from Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry as saying.

It goes on to say that the Norwegian producer Beate Arnestad had arrived in Sri Lanka during the Ceasefire Agreement period and entered Wanni “without the permission of the Foreign Ministry or any responsible state body for the filming of the movie”.

                                                                                                                                                The real face of LTTE Suicide Woman

“Sri Lankan expatriates from all over the US have risen in indignation and fury at the gross insensitivity of the organizers of the film festival,” The release said.

Source: Government of Sri Lanka

16 Apr 2008 - 19:30

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of India's former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, confirmed that she met a woman serving a life term for her involvement in the leader's assassination, saying she did it to help herself come to terms with the loss of her father.

``I do not believe in anger, hatred and violence and I refuse to allow it any power over my life,'' Vadra said in a statement issued in New Delhi today by the Indian National Congress party, headed by her widowed mother Sonia Gandhi. ``I would like to say it was a purely personal visit that I undertook completely on my own initiative.''

Vadra met Nalini Sriharan on March 19 at Vellore prison in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where she's serving a life term for her role in Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by a woman suicide bomber in May 1991. Gandhi was killed at an election rally in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur town.

India blamed the attack on Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the group fighting for a separate homeland in the neighboring nation. The LTTE has denied the accusation.

Vadra's meeting with Sriharan came to light after the Times of India reported today that a lawyer had sought details from prison authorities under India's Right to Information Act.

``Meeting with Nalini Sriharan was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced,'' Vadra said.

Sriharan, convicted for being part of the assassination team, had initially been given the death sentence. This was reduced to a life term after Sonia Gandhi pleaded for clemency as the convict had a daughter.

Tamil Tigers

The killing was seen as retaliation by the LTTE as Rajiv Gandhi had sent Indian peacekeeping soldiers to Sri Lanka in 1987 as part of an accord with the Sri Lankan government. The Indian contingent completed a withdrawal from the country in March 1990 after two years of clashes with LTTE forces.

The Tamil Tigers, designated as a terrorist group by India, said in June 2006 that it regretted the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and asked the South Asian nation's government to ``put the past behind.''

Rajiv Gandhi's death was ``a monumental historical tragedy which we deeply regret,'' the late Anton Balasingham, the LTTE's chief negotiator at the time, said in an interview with India's NDTV network, according to a TamilNet report. Balasingham didn't say the group carried out the attack.

The Times of India reported earlier today that the meeting had been cordial, citing Sriharan's lawyers S. Duraisamy and Elangovan, who said their client had briefed them.

Vadra's brother Rahul Gandhi, a Congress party member of parliament, told reporters in New Delhi that his family didn't hold feelings of hatred and anger.

``I have a different way of looking at these things,'' Rahul Gandhi said. ``I don't have a problem either.''

Vadra asked her visit be treated as a personal matter. ``I would be deeply grateful if this could be respected,'' she said.

 Buddhist leaders in Sri Lanka are encouraging their Catholic counterparts to bring a cherished statue of the Virgin Mary back to the famous shrine at Madhu in Mannar.

THE SRI LANKAN Tamil rebels(terrorists) are still “extorting” money from fellow Tamils in Qatar, a visiting minister has alleged. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is fighting for a separate state for Tamils in the majority-Sinhala country, “are still raising funds” in Qatar, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Hussein A Bhaila said in Doha yesterday.
The matter has been raised with the Qatar government, said Bhaila, who is here to attend the 8th Doha Forum on Democracy, Development, and Free Trade, opening this evening.In the past the Qatar government has assured the Sri Lankan authorities that strict action would be taken if presented with evidence. The Qatar government also had pointed out that the state had very strict rules on movement of funds and hence there was a very low chance of money being sent from Qatar. Chances of detection are very high, the Sri Lankans were told.Still, Bhaila said, there had been reports of forcible collection of funds by LTTE and “the mission is strongly looking into it”.Answering another question, Bhaila said the condition of

Hussein Bhaila (right) and Atugoda at the embassy    Sri Lankan workers in Qatar had improved after the signing of a minimum wage agreement between the two countries earlier this year. After the agreement, the minimum wage had been raised from the “unofficial” QR600 to an official QR920 a month.According to the Ministry of Interior figures, there are some 132,000 Sri Lankans in Qatar now.
The higher wages hadn’t affected the employment chances at all, he said.

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