Sea Tigers adopting suicide attack tactics– Navy

By Asif Fuard

On February 4 at around 18.00 hours nearly 400 Indian fishing trawlers, mostly belonging to the state of Tamil Nadu were detected on Navy radar screens entering Sri Lankan territorial waters north of Talaimannar close to the Iranativu Island.

Subsequent to the incident that occurred, the Sri Lanka Navy after gathering evidence from a sailor who had survived the attack claims that one fishing trawler in the pretence of being immobilized sought the assistance of the navy that was on patrol.

Two navy fibre glass boats had then gone to the aid of the Tamil Nadu fishing trawler that had shown signs of distress. When the navy boats started drawing closer to the immobilized trawler, they were fired upon by the trawler in question and by another Indian trawler which was prowling close to the navy boats. The Navy claims that they did not open retaliatory fire lest other Indian fishing boats being hit in the cross fire which eventually resulted in six sailors going missing (presumed dead).

The Navy believes that the latest modus operandi adopted by the LTTE Sea Tigers is to attack while hiding behind a cluster of Indian fishing boats which would result in the Navy being unable to counter the attack as it may cause harm to other fishermen, which is similar to the Sea Tiger’s suicide bombing tactics of sending a high speed suicide boat hidden in a cluster of small fibre glass fishing boats to ram any naval boat or ship.

The Sri Lanka Navy believes that it would be imperative for them to interrogate the LTTE operative identified as Jayakumar alias Gowri Shankar who was arrested by the Indian authorities on December 8 last year at the Chennai International Airport.

The Sunday Times learns that Gowri Shankar a resident of Jaffna was tasked with another LTTE intelligence operative identified as James , also in Indian custody, to procure Indian trawlers. Gowri Shankar had later led the Chennai “Q” branch detectives to a coastal area in Tamil Nadu known as Mallipattinam where police had recovered a large trawler registered in Tamil Nadu from an LTTE operative based in London, identified as Karappiah who is believed to be one of the heads in the LTTE arms procurement ring.

Sri Lankan Naval intelligence believes that Gowri Shankar could be aware of the LTTE’s plan to use Indian fishing trawlers to mount attacks on Sri Lanka Navy vessels.

Sri Lanka Navy commander Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda who attended the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) last Thursday, in India, took the opportunity to raise the issue of the recent attack against the Sri Lankan Navy by Indian fishing trawlers that had trespassed into Sri Lankan territorial waters in Talaimannar.

He also sought international cooperation to deal with the threat posed by the LTTE and claimed that patrolling would have to be intensified if India’s Sethusamundram shipping channel project is implemented.

He claimed that the LTTE has been a threat for Sri Lanka but if its activities are not checked the group will pose problems for other countries. He said the Sri Lankan Navy has been successful in countering the LTTE. Welcoming the Indian Navy’s initiative to bring together naval forces of the Indian Ocean region, he said such cooperation will help in formulating a joint strategy to deal with threat posed by terrorists.