ISI-Tamil ultras’ linkage is disturbing
It is an open secret that even five years after the Sri lankan Government inflicted a crushing military defeat on the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the terrorist organisation continues to receive life support from its foreign donors and supporters. However, the recent arrest of a Tamil Tiger, working for the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, in Chennai, has not only underlined that the lTTE is still a lurking threat but also brought to the forefront increasing collaboration between such groups. This is a matter of grave concern for India. On the one hand, the country is perpetually threatened by ISI-sponsored terror groups, forever on the lookout for new recruits. And on the other, it is also home to many who still sympathise with the Tamil Tiger elements. A convergence of these two will be disastrous for India’s security, and must be nipped in the bud. law enforcement agencies will have to tighten their vigil, but equally importantly, the authorities must clamp down on lTTE sympathisers. Given the public sensitivities associated with the issue, this is be easier said than done. But keep in mind that much of the pro-lTTE sentiment in India, specifically in Tamil Nadu, is politically driven. It is a convenient electoral platform that Tamil politicians like to play up during the polls or when they have nothing else to talk about. Either way, cracking down on lTTE sympathiser cells (and by extension, their ISI partners) is fast becoming a national security imperative. Arun Selvarajana, arrested last week in Chennai, was the third Sri lankan caught spying for the ISI in India. last year, Messrs Mohammed Zakir Hussain and Thameen Ansari were also nabbed on similar grounds. All three men are believed to have been handled by the same ISI agent — Amir Zubair Siddiqui, a Pakistani diplomat in Colombo, and after his unceremonious exit from Sri lanka, his junior, who still works at the High Commission there. Together, they conducted reconnaissance of key Indian installations and foreign missions in the south.
To effectively scrub out the lTTE menace, however, conventional policing and even counter-terrorism measures alone will not be enough. The group’s support channels, run by members of the Tamil diaspora who keep Tigers flush with money and weapons, have to be dismantled. This point was made in 2009 and it still holds true today. The lTTE, even at its peak, received as much as 80 per cent of its military budget from abroad, primarily from Tamils living in Britain, Canada, Switzerland and Scandinavia. The Sri lankan Army’s offensive crushed the group’s military wing and reclaimed territory from the militants, but influential leaders, donors and supporters of the Tamil Tigers are untouched. The recent European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report is only the latest study to underline this fact; months earlier, the US State Department had also highlighted this problem. Tamil charities and religious schools are often used to collect funds and indoctrinate diaspora-children, while sympathetic Tamil businesses abroad transfer funds to lTTE businesses in Sri lanka. Though the lTTE is an internationally recognised terror organisation, convictions are rare primarily because the Tamil Tigers are not considered a priority threat.