Sri Lanka offers a million rupee reward for LTTE terrorist

The 31-year-old suspect, Kajeeban Ponniah Selvanayagam alias Gopi, also known as Kasiyan, is said to have escaped from a welfare centre in Northern Vavuniya immediately after the Sri Lankan military crushed the Tamil Tigers in a final bloody battle in 2009.

The search for Selvanayagam intensified after he shot a police officer who was on his trail in Kilinochchi, the former Tamil Tiger de facto capital. According to the police the young Tamil man, who was part of a guerilla group famous for suicide bombings and assassinations, escaped from a house where he was hiding, and shot a police officer when he was identified.

Selvanayagam is suspected of being involved in relocating arms hidden in secret locations by the Tamil Tigers before their defeat, and trying to mobilise young men and women against the government.

“The LTTE had hidden arms and ammunition, explosives and other military equipment in secret locations prior to the end of the conflict and the purpose of this (Selvanayagam’s) operation had been to recover such material and give it to these operatives,” said the Sri Lankan police.

The Terrorist Investigation Department said that it had recovered a hidden cache of arms, ammunition, explosives and other military equipment including mobile phones, mortar and RPG live ammunition, hand grenades, claymore bombs as well as propaganda material in Kilinochchi.

“Selvanayagam who had been overseas and returned to Sri Lanka is actively involved in reviving certain LTTE operatives including those residing in Switzerland,” said the police.

Last week the government announced that there were attempts to re-mobilise the Tamil Tigers, who fought for a separate homeland in the Buddhist majority island for three decades.

The Tamil Tigers are banned in 32 countries including the US, UK, Australia, India and Canada. The terrorist group that assassinated two world leaders is the pioneer of the modern suicide belt and was infamous for its Black Tiger suicide squad.

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