State should not become a hunting ground for LTTE: Elangovan

Tamil Nadu should not become a hunting ground for terrorist organisations, especially the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and it should be an oasis of peace. For this, the State Government should be firm in preventing intrusion of LTTE cadres into the State, Union Minister of State for Handlooms and Textiles E.V.K.S.Elangovan said here on Saturday.

Presiding over a Congress party meeting, organised in connection with Sonia Gandhi birthday celebrations , the Minister said if there was any slack in taking action against the LTTE, the worst sufferers would be the innocent people. He wanted the State Government to give a free hand to the police in curbing LTTE activities .

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Nepal backs MR’s battle against LTTE

Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said that Nepali Premier Girija Prasad Koirala backed President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to retaliate against LTTE terror, during a recent meeting he had with Koirala in Kathmandu.

The Nepalai Premier appreciated the action taken by the Sri Lankan government to neutralize the LTTE threat, he said.

The minister said that the government did not believe in war to settle the ethnic issue, but had no option but to meet the LTTE’s military challenge.

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http://www.island.lk/2007/12/24/news3.html

India discounts Prabhakaran injury in air raid

The Indian government has no credible information that Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was injured in a Sri Lanka Air Force raid on his bunker in the last week of November.

Indian security agencies believe that reports that Prabhakaran was injured and that he may seek medical treatment abroad are part of psychological warfare against a beleaguered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

An informed source dismissed as "ridiculous" a report on Friday in a Sri Lankan newspaper that the supposed air raid on Prabhakaran killed 116 bodyguards of the LTTE chief.

Officials told on condition of anonymity that the Indian security establishment, which keeps a close tab on the Sri Lankan conflict, would have in all probability learnt by now if Prabhakaran had indeed been injured.

"All we can say now is that we have no credible intelligence to believe that Prabhakaran was wounded in any raid," the source said. "While we never rule out anything completely, we find these reports difficult to digest."

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