Rameswaram: Nearly 5,600 gelatin sticks and other explosive items allegedly meant to be smuggled to Sri Lanka were seized today from the Serankottai coast near here, and six people were arrested in this connection, police said.
Acting on a tipoff, a police team reached the spot and seized the gelatin sticks, they said. All the six people, hailing from Ramanathapuram district, were taken to a police station.
The seizure has raised fears that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam might be trying to revive its fight against the Sri Lankan government, otherwise there was no reason for such a large quantity of explosives to be smuggled to the island nation, intelligence officials said.
The Sri Lankan government had in May 2009 declared an end to the 25-year civil war after the army took control of the entire island and killed the leader of the Tamil Tigers.
On June 25, more than 50 boxes of abandoned ammunition, 41 light machine guns, 22 machine guns and five landmines were unearthed near the Thangachimadam area in the district.
Police had said the explosives and ammunition could have been buried 35 years ago by the Lankan militant organisations that had training camps here.