Photo: Dr. Rohan GunaratnaAccording to analysts tracking the LTTE which is easily the most well-armed and organised insurgent group in the world –KP a.k.a Kumaran Pathmanadan has been out of the Thailand and making trips back and forth between several south east Asian countries, including neighboring Cambodia.
Sri Lankan Security analyst and terrorism expert Dr. Rohan Gunaratna specking to media, said that after India’s intervention in Sri Lanka’s Civil War in the 1980s, which rapidity turned into a disaster and laid the ground for the assassination in 1991 of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber, KP- now in his early 50s- had for a time operated out of Penang in Malaysia.
“But in 1989 his apartment in Penang was raided, and since then he has operated out of Thailand , because the arrested of KP is an impossible, Dr. Gunaratna said.
Based on (recent) arrests of LTTE men in Indonesia, the USA, Europe, and Australia, there is a hunt on for KP,” he added.
KP- wanted by New Delhi for questioning over the Gandhi Assassination-is said to have multiple passports and runs the LTTE’s finances through bank accounts and dummy companies across the World.
‘Much of the LTTE’s arms are sourced from South- East Asia, where recent and ongoing conflicts in countries such as Cambidia, Ache and Myanmar have created a ready supply of weapons –and Thailand are a convenient transshipment point,” sources said.
Sri Lankan Security analyst and terrorism expert Dr. Rohan Gunaratna specking to media, said that after India’s intervention in Sri Lanka’s Civil War in the 1980s, which rapidity turned into a disaster and laid the ground for the assassination in 1991 of then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by an LTTE suicide bomber, KP- now in his early 50s- had for a time operated out of Penang in Malaysia.
“But in 1989 his apartment in Penang was raided, and since then he has operated out of Thailand , because the arrested of KP is an impossible, Dr. Gunaratna said.
Based on (recent) arrests of LTTE men in Indonesia, the USA, Europe, and Australia, there is a hunt on for KP,” he added.
KP- wanted by New Delhi for questioning over the Gandhi Assassination-is said to have multiple passports and runs the LTTE’s finances through bank accounts and dummy companies across the World.
‘Much of the LTTE’s arms are sourced from South- East Asia, where recent and ongoing conflicts in countries such as Cambidia, Ache and Myanmar have created a ready supply of weapons –and Thailand are a convenient transshipment point,” sources said.
Rohan Gunaratna is Head, International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore. He is also Senior Fellow, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's Jebsen Centre for Counter-Terrorism Studies, Boston; Senior Fellow, National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, Oklahoma; Honorary Fellow and Member of the Advisory Council, International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism, Israel; and Member, Steering Committee, George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute. He holds a masters degree in international peace studies from Notre Dame, US, where he was Hesburgh Scholar and a doctorate in international relations from St Andrews, where he was British Chevening Scholar.
Gunaratna has over 20 years of academic, policy, and operational experience in counter terrorism. He led the specialist team that designed and built the UN database on the mobility, weapons and finance of Al Qaeda, Taliban and their Entities. He adviced Risk Management Solutions, California, to develop their US and Global Risk Models. He is the author of 12 books including “Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror,” published by Columbia University Press, an international bestseller. He serves on the editorial boards of "Studies in Conflict and Terrorism" and "Terrorism and Political Violence," the leading counter-terrorism academic journals.
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