Act of state terrorism: SL's aim is to hunt down and kill Pathmanathan, not capture him

Reuters quoting three senior military sources and said yesterday that, all three senior military sources speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that three teams were deployed to Malayasia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia to hunt down and kill Pathmanathan, not capture him.

"We didn't want him to be brought down here. But the circumstances didn't allow us to do that," one military intelligence officer told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The presence of local intelligence and security officers acting as liasons made that plan impracticable, they told Reuters.

Sri Lankan authorities, after initially reporting the arrest of their most-wanted in Thailand on Thuesday, have since declined to say in which country he was captured. Thai and Malaysian authorities have both denied he was arrested in their countries.

This yet another act of state terrorism, says Tamil circles and they raise concerns about the inaction of international community on Sri Lanka even after it expanding it's state terrorism to international level.

Mr. Pathmanathan strongly denounced violence and was in the process of reorganising the LTTE to move in the politico- democratic path to find a permanent solution for Tamil grievances. His priority had been the people detained by Sri lanka in internment camps, mostly inaccessible to aid agencies.

Sri Lankan Minister Keheliya Rambukwela said on Friday that “there was some false hopes that after the LTTE was crushed that movement could be revived with Pathmanathan. But we have proved that we have the capability of getting to them from wherever they emerge.”