Sri Lanka denies alliance allegation with LTTE

London, Jul 1: Sri Lankan government refused to take the blame that it is creating an "alliance" with the followers and the supporters of Tamil Tigers.

The rebels, named as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were defeated by the army in 2009.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka said that he had recently met a group of 'pro-LTTE' diaspora Tamils in the country to discuss issues of humanitarian concern in the country.

"The visitors were a group who realized there was no purpose in continuing to confront the Colombo government and that they now preferred to work with it for the benefit of the Tamil people," said Rajapaksa.

He also added, "The visitors had gone to the former LTTE strong holds of Jaffna and Kilinochchi and held discussions on all the improvements, the good and bad things."

The sources stated that a detained senior LTTE leader, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, also known as KP had arranged the meeting between the two parties.

Rajapaksa, however, said that both the parties had met Pathmanathan but denied that he accompanied them on their visit to northern Sri Lanka.

The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA), meanwhile has sharply criticised the recent developments.

Suresh Premachandran, one of TNA's MPs said, "it was a shame that a government which had described Pathmanathan as a 'wanted terrorist' now sought to have him defend its own actions."

ANI