TN coastal police on high alert after crisis in Sri Lanka escalates

Chennai, July 12

The Tamil Nadu coastal police is on high alert after the Central intelligence agencies including the country's external agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), warned of being vigilant after the crisis in Sri Lanka escalated over the last couple of days.

While the state government has taken a soft stand over the entry of refugees from the island nation, the central agencies are worried about the possible entry of some extremist elements into the country under the guise of Sri Lankan refugees.

The coastal police along with the Coast Guard and the Navy is manning the coastal areas of the state including Rameswaram, Dhanushkodi where a large number of refugees have reached after being dropped by illegal ferries.

The now defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was trying to regroup in Tamil Nadu revealed the arrest and interrogation of a high-ranking former intelligence operative of the LTTE, Satkunam alias Sabesan (47) in October 2021. A woman operative was also arrested recently while she was trying to fly to Mumbai for withdrawing money from an account of the terror outfit which was lying dormant in the Mumbai branch of a nationalized bank.

After Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapakse fled from the country, the local people blocked the former finance minister and the younger brother of the president, Basil Rajapakse from fleeing to the United States along with his family on Tuesday morning. He was stopped by fellow travellers at the airport along with the airport staff.

The Indian intelligence agencies are worried that a silent campaign has been mounted by former LTTE operatives and other sympathizers of the Tamil Eelam cause who are rejoicing at the downfall of the Rajapakse brothers. It was Mahinda Rajapakse as president of the island nation who had crushed the LTTE with the killing of its supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

With all this in mind, the agencies are not taking any chances and have given inputs to the marine police of Tamil Nadu to be on the alert about the possibility of terror elements entering under the guise of refugees.