The police investigating covert LTTE operations in the city and its suburbs have arrested two Customs officers for their alleged involvement with LTTE intelligence chief Shanmugalingam Sivashankar alias Pottu Amman.
Acting on information elicited from an LTTE operative, the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) took them into custody. Government sources told The Island last night that the suspects had met Pottu Amman in the Vanni in 2004, during a ceasefire agreement arranged by the Norwegian government. Sources alleged that the suspects had cooperated with the LTTE to facilitate ‘transfer’ of specific items needed by the LTTE through the Colombo harbour.
Sources said that the LTTE had ‘agents’ both at the Bandaranaike International Airport and the Colombo Harbour to help bring in contraband.
One of the suspects now being interrogated is from a very affluent family.
The Defence Ministry said that a section of the Customs had strongly opposed some of the security measures proposed by the government to stop the LTTE using the Colombo Harbour as a transit point. A senior ministry spokesman said that they expected to make a breakthrough in their investigations into covert LTTE operations during the war.
source: Island.lk by Shamindra Ferdinando and Norman Palihawadana