Malaysian Govt will crack down on Tiger link

The Home Ministry is investigating claims that Malaysians were working with Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger terrorists to carry out a bomb attack in Colombo.
This followed the arrest of six members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Saturday in Wattala, Sri Lanka where the authorities also seized 2.7kg of high-powered C4 explosives.

According to a Sri Lankan news report, the suspects under interrogation (by Sri Lankan government troops), said they were waiting for instructions from some Malaysians - via the telephone - to launch the attack.

Commenting on the report, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the government would not hesitate to act against Malaysians linked to the LTTE.

He said his ministry would contact the Sri Lankan government to clarify the allegations and seek its assistance to obtain information on the Malaysians said to be involved.
"I have checked the report. Malaysia will never tolerate any type of terrorism. If it is true that Malaysians are involved, we will find them and take severe action.

"There have always been allegations that some Malaysians are involved with the LTTE," Syed Hamid said after the opening ceremony of the Eighth Asean Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime (8th-SOMTC) here yesterday.

The report in the Sri Lankan online daily, The Daily Mirror, stated that six LTTE suspects, allegedly responsible for the recent bomb blasts in Colombo and its suburbs, were taken into custody by a special police team on Saturday.

Police investigations revealed these suspects, five men and a woman from Welikanda and Vavuniya, had been living in Wattala in a rented house for a long period.

It was also revealed this group had planned to explode a bomb in Colombo on Saturday but police foiled their plans.

The report also stated the suspects had been given directions to carry out attacks from Malaysia over the phone.

A senior police official was quoted as saying: "They were awaiting orders from Malaysia to carry out the attack on Saturday."

Meanwhile, a top LTTE operative, who masterminded an international LTTE credit card scam, was nabbed on the same day by police in Wellawatte.

At the time of arrest, the suspect had in his possession a large number of personal identification numbers (PIN) and bank receipts issued by both local and Malaysian banks.

Source: nst