Alleged letter from LTTE threatens to kill Jayalitha Jeyaram

ALLEGED LETTER ISSUED BY THE TAMIL TIGERS THREATEN TO KILL FORMER CHIEF MINISTER JEYALALITHA JEYARAM

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Tamil Nadu police has stepped up the security of former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and General Secretary of the All India Anna Dravda Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) General Secretary Jayalalitha Jeyaram after a death threat has been issued against her allegedly by the Sri Lankan terrorist group, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Ilantheriyan has denied that their group has issued the threat against the former Chief Minister who is virulently opposed to them.

Among the two major parties in the Tamil Nadu Jayalalitha’s opponent’s the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is more sympathetic to the Sri Lankan terrorist group.

The Tamil Nadu police said it increased the security at Jayalitha’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai after a letter allegedly sent by the LTTE threatened to kill her by a bomb.

The police sources said The letter was received at the Jaya TV channel’s office, situated next to her house, Sunday night. The channel registered a complaint with the Chennai police Commissioner immediately after the receipt. The police also said the alleged letter from the LTTE also told the TV channel, called Jaya TV which is doing propaganda for the AIADMK leader to stop all the criticism of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the Chief Minister and the leader of the DMK party.

Tamil Tigers have been intricately connected with Tamil Nadu politics. Immediately after the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, by a LTTE suicide bomber serious allegations have been raised against Karunanidhi that he supported the LTTE members who killed Gandhi.

The Karunanidhi administration was dissolved by the Central government in New Delhi and he was defeated in the elections.

Jayalaitha has accused the Karunanidhi administration for the break down of law and order situation in Tamil Nadu due to the smuggling of explosives and weapons from the South Indian state to Sri Lanka.

’Police are taking all steps to avoid any untoward incident,’ Police Commissioner Letika Saran told the media.

’Bomb disposal squads are in place at the Jaya TV office. Patrolling and other security measures on the street before the residence of Jayalalitha have been intensified,’ the police commissioner pointed out.

Jayalalitha was away campaigning for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party at the time Jeya TV channel received the death threat. For a long time Jayalalitha was suspected to be on the top of the terrorist group’s hit list.

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Bus bomb by LTTE kills 4 injures 31

SUSPECTED TAMIL TIGERS ATTACK A CIVILIAN BUS KILLING FOUR AND INJURING 31 PASSENGERS INCLUDING CHILDREN

By Walter Jayawardhana

At least four civilians were killed when suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blew off a bus close to the town of Vavuniya in Sri Lanka’s troubled Northern Province.

The Ministry of Defense sources said the the bomb ripped through the civilian bus also injuring 31 other passengers which occurred at 11. 45 p.m.

On April 23 at a place called Cheddikulama on the Mannar -Medawachchiya main road.
The wayside claymore mine which ripped through the civilian bus was exploded by the suspected terrorists on the A-14 road close to Manik Farm junction, Cheddikulama police said.

The Cheddikulama police said the injured civilians were rushed to Cheddikulama General Hospital for treatment. The hospital sources said three children and eight women were among the injured.

The Ministry of Defense blamed the attack on the civilians on the LTTE. The defense ministry said the terrorist group have been engaged in civilian bus attacks starting from the Kebithigollewa bus attack that killed 65 passengers.

The alleged attack on the bus came amidst reports that the government was preparing to attack the LTTE strongholds in the Wanni area.

The rebel LTTE have been evacuated from all areas in the island except from two and a half districts of the country. Their power remains in Kilinochchi and Mulativu districts in the Northern Province and the Thoppigala jungles in the Eastern province.

Earlier on Monday the government cancelled a trip by Norway’s amabassador to Kilinochchi to mediate citing security reasons.

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Bombing of Palali air base story a complete fabrication says air force

THE TAMIL TIGERS CLAIM THAT PALALI AIRBASE HAS BEEN BOMBED IS DENIED BY THE AIR FORCE

By Walter Jayawardhana

The Sri Lanka Air Force denied the statement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) that the Tamil Tiger air planes bombed the Palai Air Strip by using their propeller driven two light winged air craft and called it a complete fabrication.

But military sources said by artillery fire six soldiers died at a place called Myladdi, away from Palali air strip. Rasiah Ilantheriyan, the LTTE military spokesman claimed their aircraft bombed the Sri Lanka government run Northern air strip causing heavy damages.

The Sri Lanka air force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha de Silva said “nothing like that ever happened” but some artillery fire was aimed at the airport from outside but that attack failed to cause any damage.

The pro-LTTE website Tamil Net said “heavy damage” was done to the airstrip.The Media Center for National Security reiterated the statement of the Air Force by saying, “We totally deny the air strike, but there were some artillery rounds fired … They also did not cause any damage.”

The rebels built military airstrips and smuggled in about five propeller driven aircraft into the country taking advantage of the lax security measures imposed by the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration immediately after he signed a Norway led peace accord.

Same sources said a suspected LTTE aircraft was spotted in the skies of Thondamannar, but it did not do any bombing and disappeared in the skies when air defense systems were activated and readied.

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A chance now or never?

Cricket fans in Sri Lanka are anxiously awaiting Sri Lanka’s performance in the last stages of the World Cup cricket tournament.

By T. B. Rahaman

Sri Lanka did well to reach the semi-final and should be able to defeat New Zealand today and reach the final.

However, the question often asked is who will win the World Cup? For obvious reasons Sri Lankan cricket fans will say that Sri Lanka will become the champions, but how realistic can it be?

According to present form Australia should become the champions for the third time. The way they have performed up to date, they have defeated their opponents very impressively. They have applied tremendous pressure on their opponents by scoring heavily whenever they batted first or reached the target with many overs to spare.

They have done this against every opponent and like in the previous two Cup finals it could be an anti climax.

In the final in England, Australia met little resistance from Pakistan and in South Africa India just could not take the fight to the Aussies.

According to past results, no team has won the World Cup three times in a row. Even when the West Indies were favoured to win it the third time they lost to a lowly placed Indian team in the final in 1983.

However, this is the best opportunity for Sri Lanka to come out on top this time. They can easily overcome New Zealand as the Kiwis are quite weak against spin.

The Australians too can be considered weak when facing spin and Sri Lanka is the most feared team in this World Cup when it comes to facing their spin attack.

Whatever is said about the resting of the three main bowlers in the Super Eights game against Australia, Sri Lanka made a very wise decision. This ploy will bring its desired results should Australia reach the final.

The ICC too criticised Sri Lanka for resting their three main bowlers in the game against Australia. May be because the ICC chief executive officer is an Australian and perhaps frustrated that the Australians could not face these bowlers before the important game in the final.

This is if Australia can beat South Africa in the other semi-final to be played tomorrow.

Nevertheless, for Sri Lanka to win in the last two games, they must improve on their strike rate when batting. They must make full use of the deliveries that stray outside the off stumps. The square cut and the pull shot are the most potent scoring strokes and it has been noticed that the Sri Lankan batsmen are not exploiting these deliveries preferring to instead leave them alone.

Having watched the Australians so far, they swung their bats at these deliveries and obtained a lot of runs. This is why they would always score over 300 runs every time they take first lease of the wicket.

Sri Lanka did this at the group matches against Bangladesh and even against India. This is why India, semi-finalists last time around, had to leave the tournament this time.

Sri Lanka should aim to score over 330 runs should they bat first in the final. Thereafter they possess a versatile attack to restrict any opposition team from reaching such a good total.

Besides, this is the best opportunity for Sri Lanka to win this time around as the pitches too favour Sri Lanka’s style of play. via Wijeya Newspapers

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