NEW DELHI: The Indian Government is perurbed over Pakistan’s growing assistance to the banned Outfit the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) following India’s crackdown on the LTTE.

Last month Krishna Kumar who is second in the LTTE hierarchy was in Karachi and held a meeting with senior members of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during his weeklong visit.

This was Kittu’s third visit to Pakistan this year. That his missions to solicit that country’s help in arms and ammunition to Sri Lanka have proved fruitful is clear from the fact that shortly before Kittu’s recent visit four ships hired by the LTTE anchored-off Karachi for some time and only later sailed for Sri Lanka.

The movement of the ships carrying arms and ammunition was brought to the Indian Government’s notice by the Indian Navy. And India now plans to raise the issue with the Sri Lankan government.

Prime Minister P.V Narasimha Rao is believed to have already brought up the question of Pakistan’s encouragement to the LTTE with Premier Nawaz Sharif at Rio.

Minister of State for External Affairs Eduardo Faleiro discuss the same subject with his Pakistani counterpart at Colombo on July 9 and it will also figure on the agenda of the scheduled talks between the External Affairs secretaries of the two countries.

The Union Cabinet which had banned the LTTE in May recently sought a detailed study of the success in the implementation of the ban. The study’s conclusion was that although the LTTE cadres were on the run goods like Kerosene oil and petrol continued to be smuggled across the Tamil Nadu border.

Following the crackdown by the Indian authorities it is not only the LTTE-Pakistan connection which has taken shape but also a link between the LTTE and the Janata Vimukti Perumuna (J VP) another banned organization in Sri Lanka the JVP has always had a rabidly and anti-Indian stance.

Kittu who was extradited from the United Kingdom last year has been on a major mission around the globe collecting funds.

After his recent trip to Pakistan he took a Pakistan International Airways flight to Europe. He has lately taken refuge in Poland and Switzerland.

Article extracted from this publication >> July 24, 1992