MADRAS, INDIA, Oct 9, Reuter; India released the Chief representative of Sri Lanka’s main guerilla group and about 150 other Tamil rebels on Sunday and flew them to Jaffna.
Military sources said the Indian Air Force flew the rebels, arrested in a security clampdown early in September, to Northern Siri Lanka after they threatened a hunger strike.
Sadasivan Krishnaukumar, Chief Representative in India of The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had warned Indian authority’s he and his followers would start a hunger strike on Monday if they were not freed or brought to trial.
They had been held in prisons in Tamil Nadu State. India was about60 million Tamils with close to the Sri Lankan Tamil community.
The LTTE is the main guerrilla group fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil community.
The LTTE, which rejects an India Sri Lanka accord aimed at ending their separatist campaign, clashes frequently with the 52,000 Indian Troops sent to the island to enforce the pact.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 14, 1988
