New Delhi: The central government Tuesday extended for five more years the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terror group that was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The ban has been extended under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, a notification issued by the Union Home ministry stated. India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the group was last extended for five years in 2014.
The LTTE, a terror outfit based in Sri Lanka but it has its supporters, sympathisers and agents in India. It was formed in 1976.
The LTTE’s objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and amounts to cession and secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union and thus falls within the ambit of unlawful activities, the notification said.
“The LTTE’s continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India. The group continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture and also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals,” the notification added.
Even after its military defeat in May, 2009 in Sri Lanka, LTTE has not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ and has been clandestinely working towards this cause by undertaking fund raising and propaganda activities, and the remnant LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally, the Home Ministry said.
It will ultimately have a strong disintegrating influence over the territorial integrity of India, hence, the strong need continues to exist to control all such separatist activities by all possible lawful means, the notification further stated.
“The diaspora continue to spread through articles in the internet portals, anti-India feeling amongst the Sri Lankan Tamils by holding the government of India responsible for the defeat of the LTTE and such propaganda through Internet, which remains continued, is likely to impact Very Very Important Persons (VVIP) security adversely in India,” the notification pointed out.