Coonoor: The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, dealing with the ban of the LTTE in India, concluded its sitting here on Monday.
MDMK leader Vaiko wound up his arguments by appealing to the tribunal to lift the ban on Tamil tigers. While Justice G.P. Mittal, who is heading the tribunal, presided on Monday, Mr Velavan, Q-branch police inspector from Chennai, deposed on the second and concluding day of the sitting.
He said that six persons, arrested early in the year for possession of electronic explosive devices, were found to be supporters of Tamil Eelam’s creation and had used those devices to ignite explosives, he added.
Mr Vaiko asked whether the police had any evidence to substantiate their claim that the arrested persons either had links with the LTTE or were its members.
Arguing for the lifting of the ban on the LTTE, Mr Vaiko said that such a step was to do injustice to the Lankan Tamils as every Lankan Tamil who arrived in India was being branded as an LTTE member and false cases were being registered against them.
Countering the police’s statements that there was a possible threat from the LTTE to the lives of VVIPs in India, Mr Vaiko said that a mere threat could not be taken as a reason to impose the ban, he added to justify his case for lifting the ban on the organisation.
Later, addressing mediapersons, Mr Vaiko said that the central government imposed a ban on the LTTE, noting that there was a move on the part of the LTTE to form Tamil Eelam by including Tamil Nadu and other parts of India.
“I reiterated before the tribunal that this notion was wrong and Tamil Eelam did not include any part of India. In fact, the Tamil Nadu assembly itself had passed a resolution in support of the creation of Tamil Eelam, that includes only the north eastern provinces of Sri Lanka,” Vaiko pointed out.
