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NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 15:

        In the backdrop of a boat belonging to Lankan militants caught by the Coast Guard after it strayed into Indian waters near here yesterday, Director General of Police D Mukherjee has convened a meeting later today with SPs of coastal districts to discuss the security measures.

        The Indian Coast Guard foiled a major LTTE suicide attack when its patrol ship in the Palk bay intercepted a Tiger boat off Kodiakarai, about 300 km south of here and seized a large cache of weapons including a AK-56 assault rifle and a fully loaded suicide jacket, besides large amount of ammunition and other militants gadgets.

        Along with the pile of weapons, one Indian and four Sri Lankan nationals were arrested by the Coast Guard after a patrol ship intercepted their boat 'Rama Jayam' off the Kodikarai coast in Nagapattinam district late last night.

        The detained men were identified as Ramachandran (41) from India, Siva Padmanabhan (43),and Arumugam (53) A Purushothaman (28) and Mathaiah (21) from Sri Lanka.

        The arms seized from the boat included an AK 56 rifle, 124 rounds of live ammunition, five hand grenades, a seven-kg suicide jacket, seven kg of white chemical powder and eight drums containing 55 litres of liquid chemical, which could be used for making ammunition.

        A satellite phone for communication along with sufficient food provisions was also found on board.

        In one of the haul earlier, 'Sahayam', a boat carrying 'chemicals' meant for making sophisticated mines and grenades, was intercepted and seized off Dhanushkodi coast and three Sri Lankan nationals were arrested.

        Coast Guard officials in Rameswaram said that the boat was carrying 123 bags of chemicals, clips, fuse and remote devices for making mines and grenades.

        The arrested were identified as Sukumaran (45), Ranjitkumar (31) and Jayakaran (33), all from Mullaitivu in the island nation.