Srilanka

Police on lookout for LTTE link in arms haul

By IE

Tuesday December 5, 04:17 AM

After unearthing a major arms manufacturing hub in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Police are on the lookout for a trail of agents involved in smuggling gelex boosters for the LTTE . The smuggling of the boosters assumes significance, especially in view of the escalating hostilities between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the LTTE.

With the Manamadurai police stumbling upon a large consignment of boosters, on November 29, stacked in a Tata Sumo, after the vehicle was involved in an accident on the highway 3 kilometers from the town, they are not taking any chances.

Soon after the incident, the southern districts were put on high alert and vigil intensified along the coast. "Police is investigating the possibility of Chennai being used as a transit for the boosters supplied from Andhra Pradesh. We are trying to find out if there are any sub-offices in Chennai (through which the boosters were being smuggled down south and later by sea to the Tigers in north Sri Lanka)," said DGP D Mukherjee.

"Our hunch is that the consignment of boosters seized in Manamadurai were meant for the LTTE," he added.

"We are searching for two agents who have organised the movement of the boosters from Hyderabad to Madurai by road," Mukherjee said. One of the agents, Balan, is said to have purchased the boosters from a sub-dealer from Nalgonda.

The Indian Express