By IANS,
Colombo : The Sri Lankan military has found photographs and videos showing politicians from India’s Tamil Nadu state in the company of Tamil Tiger leaders in the island’s north, it was announced Monday.
The defence ministry said soldiers combing abandoned bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) discovered the photographs as well as videos of the politicians with LTTE boss Velupillai Prabhakaran.
These included MDMK leader Vaiko, a long-time MP and a vocal supporter of the LTTE, and P. Nedumaran, who has known Prabhakaran since the early 1980s when the LTTE chief was a largely unknown figure.
Both Nedumaran and Vaiko made clandestine visits to LTTE territory in Sri Lanka in the 1980s to meet Prabhakaran.
Vaiko spent about a month in LTTE zone in 1989, when Indian troops were battling the Tigers in Sri Lanka’s northeast. Nedumaran also made a similar trip to the island in 1985, again spending about a month there.
“The soldiers have found several recent photographs and video footage in a building earlier occupied by the LTTE terrorists, showing certain south Indian politicians in LTTE camps in Wanni,” the ministry said.
It said soldiers from the 58 Division “made (the) startling discovery” when they captured an LTTE satellite communication centre to the west of Puthukkudiyiruppu, the last township held by the Tigers in the north.
“Vaiko had been photographed in LTTE uniform, firing pistols with Prabhakaran, delivering brain-washing lectures to the LTTE terrorists, and having discussions with Prabhakaran,” it said.
It claimed that there were a number of photographs “showing some south Indian politicians championing tribalism, actively participating in terrorist activities in Wanni”.
Nearly 200 people, including Vaiko, were arrested and remanded to judicial custody Saturday in Tamil Nadu for showing black flags to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and burning his photographs.