Six players of the Sri Lankan cricket team, which had arrived on a visit toPakistan, are reported to have been injured and four policemen killed when 10 ormore persons wielding hand-held weapons, including hand-grenades, attacked a busin which the team was going to the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on the morning ofMarch 3, 2009.
The attack has been recorded on closed circuit TV and should enable thePakistani authorities to identify the terrorists and the organisation to whichthey belong. The Sri Lankan Government is reported to have advised the team tocancel the visit and return to Sri Lanka.
While it is too early to assess as to who might have been responsible for theattack and why, one has to recall past instances of contacts of the LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM--known before1997 as the Harkat-ul-Ansar), a member of the International Islamic Front(IIF) of Al Qaeda and the role played by the commercial ships of the LTTE in the1990s in facilitating heroin smugglimg from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
In 1993, the Indian Coast Guard had intercepted an LTTE ship in which Kittu, aleader of the LTTE, was travelling from Karachi to the Wanni region of NorthernSri Lanka. When cornered by the Coast Guard, the LTTE cadres on board the shipset fire to it and it sank. Kittu chose to go down with the ship in orderto avoid falling into the hands of the Coast Guard. Some members of the crew jumped from the sinking ship and were arrested and interrogated. The subsequentinvestigation brought out that the ship was carrying a consignment of arms andammunition, which was loaded by the HUM cadres at Karachi, in the presence ofsome officers of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Navy.
Reports received in 1994-95 had indicated that the LTTE had helped the HUMin smuggling arms and ammunition in its ships to jihadi elements in SouthernPhilippines and that in return for this the HUM and the ISI had gifted someanti-aircraft weapons and ammunition and surface-to-air missiles to the LTTE.
Since 9/11, this source for clandestine arms procurement and heroinsmuggling for the LTTE has dried up due to the deployment of NATO ships offPakistan to prevent any shipping activity in support of Al Qaeda. The HUMcontinues to have an active presence in the Southern Philippines and theHarkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) in the Arakan area of Myanmar and in SouthernThailand. One cannot rule out the possibility of the HUM---and possibly even theHUJI-- maintaining fraternal ties with the LTTE despite its Hindu/Christianbackground and past anti-Muslim policies in the areas controlled by it.
These are opportunistic alliances to assist each other and the fact that theLTTE had followed an anti-Muslim policy should not come in their way. In my pastarticles, I had mentioned that the ISI's arms gifts to the LTTE despite itsanti-Muslim policies started after its assassination of Rajiv Gandhiin May,1991.
Against this background, a possible line of enquiry should be whether theHUM or any of its allies in the IIF is repaying a debt to the LTTE for its pastassistance by attacking the Sri Lankan cricket team.
Relevant extracts from my past articles having a bearing on this are annexed.
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B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.
Annexure
In the second half of 1994, the LTTE had helped the Harkat-ul-Ansar (sincerenamed as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen), the terrorist organisation of Pakistan runby the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in smuggling at least two shiploads ofarms and ammunition from Karachi for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) ofthe Southern Philippines. In return for the LTTE's assistance in safely carryingthese items to the Southern Philippines, the HUM and the ISI gave to it anundetermined quantity of anti-aircraft guns with ammunition and surface-to-airshoulder-fired missiles. The LTTE brought these weapons into use for the firsttime in April 1995 when it downed two aircraft of the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF)at Palali. Subsequently, it continued to use its anti-aircraft capabilityacquired from the HUM and the ISI against the SLAF effectively . It was alsoreported to have received replenishments of this capability in return forassisting the HUM in shipping to a port in Turkey consignments of arms andammunition meant for the Islamic terrorists in Chechnya.
-- From my article of 24. 07. 2001 titled Attackon Sri Lankan Air Base At Katunayake
The details also indicate that the maximum damage to the planes of the SLAF andthe SL Airlines was, most probably, caused with rocket-propelled grenade (RPG)launchers of Soviet vintage which the Afghan Mujahideen, now forming part of theTaliban, and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan had captured inlarge numbers from the arms depots of Kabul after the collapse of the Najibullahregime in April, 1992. In the past, the ISI and its creation, theHarkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), had supplied at least three consignments of weaponsseized from Kabul, including the launchers and anti-aircraft guns and missiles,to the LTTE in return for its assistance in narcotics smuggling and in shippingarms consignments to the Muslim separatists in Southern Philippines and to theChechen terrorists in Russia through a Turkish port.
-- From my article of 26. 07. 2001 titled TheOmens From Katunayake
In its fierce determination to achieve its political objective of a Tamil Eeelam,a separate Tamil State encompassing the Northern and Eastern provinces of SriLanka, the LTTE follows a no-holds-barred approach. It has had no qualmsover letting its fleet be used for narcotics-running by the heroin barons ofPakistan and Afghanistan or for gun running to the Abu Sayyaf and the MoroIslamic Liberation Front of the Southern Phillipines by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen(HUM) of Pakistan in order to replenish its coffers and arsenal. It didnot hesitate to accept a consignment of arms and ammunition from theInter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan in 1993.
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-- From my article of 29. 04. 2002 titled TheLTTE
India has also an international obligation under various internationalconventions relating to counter-terrorism and particularly under the UN SecurityResolution No.1373, which was passed after the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US.The UNSC Resolution No.1373 applies to all international terrorist organisationsand not just to international jihadi terrorist organisations. The LTTE comesunder the definition of an international terrorist organisation due to variousreasons. Firstly, it had carried out acts of terrorism in Indian soil in thepast, including the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Secondly, it has hadcontacts in the past with the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM) of Pakistan, which is afounding-member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF) and whichis behind many acts of jihadi terrorism in Indian territory. Thirdly, it has hadcontacts in the past with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The armsand ammunition carried by the late Kittu's ship in 1993 were given by the HUMand were loaded on to the LTTE ship at Karachi with the complicity of the ISI.Fourthly, it has had and continues to have contacts with various terroristorganisations of West Asia such as the Hezbollah of the Lebanon. Fifthly, itruns an international arms smuggling and procurement network with the help ofsome members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora abroad. Sixthly, the recentinvestigations by the Tamil Nadu Police have brought out that though the LTTEhas not used the Indian territory for an act of terrorism after theassassination of Rajiv Gandhi, it continues to use the Indian territory for theprocurement of material required for improvised explosive devices. Seventhly, ithas set up logistics support sanctuaries in many countries of the world with thehelp of members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora as well as others sympatheticto it. These factors oblige India to extend to Sri Lanka two kinds ofassistance--namely, intelligence-sharing and action against the LTTE's logisticssupport sanctuaries in Indian territory. India has already been extending suchassistance. While intelligence-sharing cannot be public knowledge, the detailsof the recent actions by the Coast Guard and the Tamil Nadu Police against theLTTE's procurement activities are evidence of the Indian co-operation. The 9/11terrorist strikes also brought about a recognition by the internationalcommunity that terrorism is an absolute evil, whatever be its cause andobjective and should not be tolerated. Every State, which is a victim ofterrorism, has a right to take all legitimate self-defence measures to protectthe lives and property of its nationals. Thus, the Government of Sri Lanka hasthe right to take all legitimate measures to protect its citizens from acts ofterrorism. Such legitimate measures include procurement of the weapons andexpertise required for counter-terrorism operations from other countries.
-- Extract from my article of 4-6-07 titled FacingRealities
