Sonia Gandhi Recieved Threat from LTTE

New Delhi: Sri Lanka’s banned rebels, the LTTE might target several Indian VVIPs, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls.

Sources said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an advisory to state DGPs, especially of the southern states, to be extra cautious about the security cover provided to VVIPs, especially Sonia Gandhi, during their campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls.

It is noteworthy that Sonia Gandhi’s husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide attack carried out by the LTTE, with the help of a woman suicide bomber.

The LTTE, fighting for a separate Tamil land in Sri Lanka, have nearly been eliminated by the island country’s armed forces. The rebels have been restricted to a very small area, the No Fire Zone in Pudukudiyirippu area of Mullaittivu.

There are concerns that several LTTE rebels, including its top leadership, might infiltrate into India, if it hasn’t so far.

The Centre has already issued an advisory to the police chiefs to review the security of 11 Chief Ministers of different states, who are facing threat from terrorists and Naxals.

The 10 CMs include Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raman Singh (Chhattisgarh), Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (West Bengal), Mayawati (Uttar Pradesh), Naveen Patnaik (Orissa), Ashok Chavan (Maharashtra), Narendra Singh Modi (Gujarat) and Omar Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir), official sources said.

Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal, Manipur’s Okram Ibobi Singh and K Karnunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, are also in the list.

The advisories have been issued at a time when there are reports that extremist Taliban elements might have infiltrated into India through the Kashmir Vally. The Army has denied such reports.

However, not taking any chances the MHA today sought a report from security agencies about the reports of a possible Taliban infiltration.

The move comes after a wireless intercept reportedly suggested that a group of nearly 20 militants, said to be Taliban, were fighting the Army in Gurez sector of North Kashmir.

The Army headquarters informed the government that intermittent gunfight was on in the sector and two of the group had been gunned down, sources in the Home Ministry said. The sources said the bodies retrieved from the scene of encounter showed some features similar to those belonging to North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

The security agencies were closely monitoring the situation after an intercept between two groups suggested presence of Taliban in North Kashmir and panic messages from Lashker-e-Taiba cadres asking them to go back.

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