Tigers out on prowl in Jaffna to disrupt polls, says Lankan Army

COLOMBO, Jan 6: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership has sent fresh batches of well-trained guerrillas to the northern Jaf...

COLOMBO, Jan 6: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leadership has sent fresh batches of well-trained guerrillas to the northern Jaffna peninsula seeking to disrupt the local body elections scheduled for January 29, Army sources said today.

Security forces stationed in Jaffna have received intelligence reports that new batches of infiltrators have been sent by LTTE chief Prabhakaran at the instance of Pottu Amman, the intelligence chief and Jaffna commander, sources said here.

The replenishment is ostensibly aimed at offsetting the recent losses the LTTE incurred in face of renewed Army onslaught.

For the past few months Army units have busted a number of LTTE hideouts and killed over 90 Tamil rebels.

Suspected LTTE cadres threw a grenade at the activists of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) at Jaffna while they were busy with election campaign.

Despite the nervousness among over 1,170 contestants and election officials, the Government has decided to conduct the polls to 17 local bodies including Jaffna Municipal Council after a gap of 14 years.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga, herself a staunch advocate of the elections in the peninsula, has assured an EPRLF delegation that the Government would not spare any effort to hold a free and fair poll.

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She told EPRLF , which has been demanding disarming of the non-LTTE Tamil groups before the polls, that instructions have been issued to the police and poll officials to maintain impartiality and prevent irregularities. She also told him the Government would seek the help of several NGOs to act as independent observers.