TN CS assures there is no militant activity in state

Chennai, Sep 19 (UNI) Even as a city court remanded seven persons to police custody in connection with manufacture of components for empty rocket shells and launchers, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary L K Tripathy tonight assured there was no overt or covert militant activity in the state.

Addressing a state-level press conference here, Mr Tripathy said the situation was under control even in naxal-prone areas like Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Vellore.

The Special Task Force constituted to capture Forest Brigand Veerappan was now monitoring the situation in these districts.

He claimed Tamil Nadu had been free of extremist activites in the recent years and there had been no major incident since 2002.

Asked whether the functioning of illegal arms units which came to light recently was the result of intelligence failure, he said this had been happening since 2003.

'First, we will solve the issue and then take action,' he added.

In view of a heavy influx of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, the state police along with Central agencies had strenghtened coastal security to prevent infiltration of the LTTE in the guise of refugees, he said.

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