"Couples of LTTE outfit, nabbed by 'Q' branch police for possessing bullets and satellite phone."

The 'LTTE' outfit couples, claimed them as lovers, nabbed by the "Q" Branch Police, for possessing Bullets and Satellite Phone. They entered in to Rameswaram by a boat unauthorisdely, without valid visa and passport.

The lovers confessed that they had fought the Lankan forces for five years as LTTE cadres till they were captured in March 2009. Their plan was to get married in India and seek asylum in one of the European countries.

Raising serious security concerns, two Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the Mandapam quarantine camp have been found to be LTTE cadres who had smuggled in ammunition and communication equipment to India few days back.

N Narmadan and Darshini of Killinochi, a lover couple from northern Sri Lanka, were picked up by the "Q" branch of the Tamil Nadu police on suspicion and put in the quarantine ward for questioning when they landed at Rameswaram by boat.

But the police came to know about their antecedents and that they had smuggled into India three magazines with 22 live 9 mm bullets, a 'Thuraya Satellite Phone and a global positioning system (GPS) after they arrested one Jeeva alias Selva Kumar (27), a boat owner, in a heroin smuggling case at Rameswaram on Tuesday.

Jeeva was picked up along with M Khaleel Rehman (39), a hawala agent of Keezhakarai, M Raja (25) and M Palanikumar (35), a boat driver.

They were traveling in Raja's car when police intercepted them based on specific information that they were trafficking heroin, said a "Q" branch official.

Along with the vehicle, police seized 500gm of heroin and Rs 8 lakh cash in Indian Money set from Sri Lanka through the hawala channel. The contraband was to be shipped to the island nation, it is learnt. During further raids conducted on Jeeva's premises, the police seized the ammunition and communication equipment.

Jeeva told the police that he received them from Narmadan and was expected to hand them over to somebody else once he got instruction to that effect from an LTTE operative who is still in Sri Lanka.

The "Q" branch officials then questioned the "lover couple" who confessed that they had fought the Lankan forces for fife years as LTTE cadres till they were captured in March 2009.

They escaped to Rameswaram in Jeeva's boat once they were released from the IDP camp by the Lankan Army. Their plan was to get married in India and seek asylum in one of the European countries. The ammunition and communication equipment, Narmadan Said, were given to him by somebody in Sri Lanka. His brief was to hand them over to Jeeva.

Narmadan, further claimed, he had no further information about it purpose. Darshini claimed she was not aware that her lover was carrying bullets and a satellite phone.

The case is a new challenge for "Q" Branch officials, who had screened close to 700 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, mostly in Rameswaram, ever since the war ended in Sri Lanka. How many of them could have had similar antecedents and what all they could have smuggled into India in any body's guess.

- Asian Tribune -