Kerala is the transit point for anti-India elements

George Iype in Kochi

Kerala has emerged as South India's safest transit point for foreign nationals, especially Sri Lankans suspected to be the members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Reports of the state police and Intelligence Bureau point out that the three airports at Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, and the port in Kochi offer the safest passage to "anti-India elements."

Highly placed sources said the IB has constituted special squads to monitor all foreign nationals passing through Kerala, thanks to a number of mysterious incidents involving Sri Lankans in the recent months.

In March, a Sri Lankan ship bound for Dubai from the Indian territorial waters at Vizhinjam near Thiruvananthapuram "disappeared." The police and customs officials had earlier detained it under the Foreigners Act for not possessing valid documents.

The captain of the mid-sized Sri Lankan ship had claimed that he touched Indian shores to buy provisions. But while the police and customs were still investigating as what led a Sri Lankan ship to be anchored on the Kerala coast and the city court was considering a bail application moved by the captain, the ship and its entire crew disappeared.

"It could have been a Sri Lankan ship with an LTTE connection," officials now admit.

"There are many similar incidents involving Sri Lankan nationals in Kerala. The state has become an easy transit route for anti-India elements, many of them LTTE members," said a senior police officer.

This, he added, was because "because security in other cities like Madras and Bombay is very strict."

Kerala's proximity to Tamil Nadu where LTTE members still operate, easy access to the state from Tamil Nadu by road and the large number of airports and small ports in Kerala are cited as the main reasons for this alarming trend.

Sri Lanka has officially conveyed to India that New Delhi should play an effective role in defending the Indian Ocean. In a recent message, Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Laxman Kirialle said: "If India acts positively, our war with the LTTE will end soon."

The Sri Lankan government claims the LTTE is smuggling arms and ammunition to Jaffna from some of the south Indian bases of the militant group.

"The LTTE has many spots in South India as safe routes. Some of them are in Kerala," intelligence official said.

Meanwhile, sleuths are investigating the mysterious visit of two foreign nationals, suspected to be Sri Lankans, to India's only aircraft carrier I N S Viraat at the Kochi naval base last week.

The ship had undergone major refitting at the Cochin Shipyard Limited to extend its serviceability and seaworthiness to at least 2010. After the first phase of the renovations, the vessel moved to the Bombay Naval Dockyard for the installation of the anti-missile system and other sophisticated weaponry.

Two weeks ago, it returned to Kochi for a trial run. Among the high-profile visitors to the aircraft carrier were the two foreign nationals who police officials says "successfully visited the ship, slipped out of Kochi and flew out of the Thiruvananthapuram airport."

When contacted officials at the Southern Naval Command in Kochi downplayed the incident, saying the foreigners had gone to the naval base to see a Sri Lankan officer currently undergoing training there. They were introduced as the officer's wife and father-in-law.

But sources in the navy said the duo hired an apartment opposite I N S Dronacharya, Asia's biggest gunnery school, for a few days.

A few officers who were suspicious about the foreigners's visit are said to have informed the police. But before the police could act, the Sri Lankans left Kochi by train for Thiruvananthapuram. From there they flew out the same day.

Intelligence sleuths who have already questioned key navy officials said the two Lankans spent nearly an hour aboard the aircraft carrier. "We are trying to find out why two Sri Lankans should make a trip to the Viraat," a sleuth said.

Though there are a number of foreign officers undergoing defence training at the Southern Naval Base, no visiting foreign national is permitted to enter the defence installation. Last year, two Koreans who got in on the pretext of offering religious articles at a place where the water and land converged were immediately arrested and deported.

Police officials say the largest number of foreign nationals who slip out through Kerala go not via the Kochi port or other minor coastal outlets, but via the three airports at Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. The police claim they have evidence to show that the new Cochin International Airport has emerged as the safest transit route for Sri Lankan nationals with LTTE connections.

On April 12, the Central government had extended the ban on LTTE for two more years. The earlier ban expires on May 14.

Next: Kerala: The LTTE connection

ALSO SEE:
India's Vietnam
The IPKF in Sri Lanka: 10 Years On. A gripping series on what went wrong.

Design: Dominic Xavier

Tell us what you think of this report