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Step up naval surveillance in common waters: Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Concerned over the large-scale resumption of smuggling of arms and ammunition by the LTTE from India, the Sri Lanka Government has sought heightened naval surveillance in the common waters between the two countries.

According to officials here, the stepped-up activities of the LTTE on Indian soil was one of the major issues that figured in the discussions the new Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama had in New Delhi during his first visit a few days ago.

After his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 31, Mr. Bogollagama has been quoted as saying that India has agreed to step up its naval surveillance in the common waters between the two countries.

A report by the Sri Lanka military said that before Mr. Bogollagamma's visit to New Delhi many stories were published in the Indian press about how the LTTE had started to smuggle from the very porous South Indian coast large quantities of explosives and other material like steel ball bearings to Sri Lanka in preparation for a long drawn-out war in the country.

In a related development, Sri Lanka Naval Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC) on duty off the coast at Kalpitiya on Friday sunk two suspected LTTE boats with 28 sacks containing over one million steel balls.

A statement by the Navy said its IPC detected two suspicious boats about 6 Nm North West of Battalangunduwa seas heading towards the Silavathurai area at 9.45 a.m.

Warning shots

"Naval sources said that when the patrol craft intercepted the two boats and closed in for investigations, they were trying to flee the area refusing to heed the orders given by the Navy. The naval patrol craft then fired warning shots at the boats. The occupants on these two boats had fired back at the naval craft. The retaliatory fire of the naval craft sank the two boats and killed four LTTE cadres who were on board," it said.

The statement said among items recovered were four 25 Horse Power Out Board Motor engines, 28 sacks of steel balls, T-56 weapons, four hand grenades and a satellite phone.

Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets pounded `pre-identified' LTTE mortar positions at Sorampattu in Palai, Jaffna.

It said the strike was meant to neutralise the constant mortar attack launched by the LTTE terrorists towards the Sri Lanka Army Forward Defence Line. "The LTTE mortar positions were destroyed completely due to the attack."

The Air Force launched an air strike targeting the LTTE sea tiger base at Chenmalai, north of Alampillai on Thursday afternoon.

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