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Delhi, Colombo checking arms smuggling

MANILA: India and Sri Lanka are now engaged in “a hand-in-glove operation” to prevent arms smuggling by the LTTE, according to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

This was now the state of play, despite the “technical” time-lag for the formalisation of any accord on coordinated patrolling along the Palk Strait, he said here. “What we need are results more than the methodology,” he said.

“They [Indians] have deployed quite a sizable Coast Guard in the Palk Strait, independent of Sri Lanka. That is the understanding. We are working very closely with Indian Intelligence. Indian cooperation is extensively extended to us.”

About the LTTE’s current profile, Mr. Bogollagama said “there is evidence about their links with Al-Qaeda.” However, its links with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group in the Philippines, noticed in 1995, were no longer in evident.

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