The Island newspaper titled "Tigers return from India on a destabilization mission - SL intelligence, three arrested, others at large", the Indian High Commission in Colombo said in a statement that "The suggestion contained in the news item regarding the training of terrorists at three secret camps in Tamil Nadu, India is entirely erroneous and baseless." The Island reported that state intelligence services have received information that around 150 terrorists who underwent a special arms training at three secret camps in Tamil Nadu, have returned to Sri Lanka and are hiding in the North and the East to carry out a destabilization campaign. According to the report the information was revealed during an interrogation of three suspects arrested for the March 17 murder of an Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) member in Trincomalee. The suspects, who have been former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres have fled to India after the end of the war, have claimed that they have been trained in three camps located in Tamil Nadu and sent back to create disorder in the liberated areas. They have said that they returned to Sri Lanka under the guise of fishermen to conduct clandestine operations in the North and the East. Indian High Commission flatly denied that such training has been given to any suspected terrorists. "Relevant agencies of the two countries have ongoing cooperation and no such information has been brought to the notice of the Government of India," the High Commission said. The suspects' claim comes in the wake of India's siding with the West and voting against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council to pass a resolution on Sri Lanka due to the pressure from Tamil Nadu political parties, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa led AIADMK and Karunanidhi led DMK. Sri Lankan intelligence services believe the suspects have been involved in several unsolved murders in the North and East reported in the past. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan security forces have begun search operations in the Eastern Province, where the murder of the EPDP member took place, for the LTTE suspects who have reportedly returned to the country, military sources said today. The state security forces are searching for illegal weapons and other armed gangs hiding in the area. The army and police have launched a search operation in and around Trincomalee-Anuradhapura junction and Anbuwelipuram in Trincomalee, local newspaper Daily Mirror reported today.
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