Chennai: May 17. It was on this day a decade ago LTTE was defeated by Sri Lankan forces in the ethnic war that lasted for years, claiming many lives on both sides.
Ten years after it was decimated, the organisation is trying to make a comeback, if one is to go by a recent notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
According to the MHA, which extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for another five years, as the LTTE “continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture and also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals, it is necessary to declare LTTE as an unlawful association with immediate effect.”
It added that the “diaspora continue to spread through articles in the Internet portals, anti-India feeling amongst the Sri Lankan Tamils by holding the Government of India responsible for the defeat of the LTTE and such propaganda through Internet, which remains continued, is likely to impact Very Very Important Persons’ (VVIPs’) security adversely in India.”
Stating that even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, the LTTE had not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ (separate land for Tamils) and had been clandestinely working towards the cause by undertaking fund-raising and propaganda activities, the notification said the remnant LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally.
The LTTE’s objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India and amounted to cession and secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union and thus fell within the ambit of unlawful activities, it further said, and added that the Tamil chauvinist groups and pro-LTTE groups continued to foster a separatist tendency amongst the masses and enhance the support base for LTTE in India and, particularly, in Tamilnadu.
Even as police sources claimed that the words and acts of LTTE supporters in Tamilnadu are under watch and any unlawful activity will not be allowed, a MDMK member stated that they would continue to support the cause of Lankan Tamils. “They are our brothers and sisters and our solidarity is always with them. At the same time, we are not against the sovereignty of India,” he added.