The Web Sri Lanka In Focus

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Kerala says it is probing reports that Prabhakaran is in state

Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said on Tuesday that his department has asked state police intelligence to verify a report in a local Malayalam newspaper that LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his wife have escaped to Kerala, in the wake of escalating war in Sri Lanka between the LTTE and Lankan armed forces.

The Minister, however, added that the state Government had no official information from any sources on this. Intelligence sources too said they were yet to have any indication of it.

Balakrishnan said police stations along the state’s coastline have anyway been asked to stay alert earlier, to check on suspicious activities. The Government is also planning to open eight more coastal police stations, he added.

Another news report, meanwhile, had said the LTTE chief and his wife were smuggled not into Kerala but Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, on January 10. The report said they were in the guise of refugees, and they had moved on to Coimbatore later. State intelligence sources here, however, said no such information had been shared by their TN counterparts.

Source: indianexpress.com