APD | Sri Lanka seeks support to contain new terrorism threat

By APD writer Easwaran

COLOMBO, Dec. 13 (APD) -- Sri Lanka on Friday sought support to contain a new terrorism threat by whatever means necessary.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa warned that if the situation is not contained all neighbouring countries including India, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and even countries further off like Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia will be under threat.

Rajapaksa expressed these views while speaking as the Chief Guest at the graduation ceremony of the Defence Services Command and Staff College in Sri Lanka.

“We once again assume leadership of this nation at a time when our national sovereignty and national security is under threat. With just days to go to the tenth anniversary of the victory against the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), we had the Easter Sunday suicide bombings carried out by an extremist Islamic organization. In comparison to most countries in Asia we are a small island nation. But nothing seems to happen here on a small scale,” Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa said that the Easter Sunday bombings was the deadliest terrorist attack on civilian targets to take place anywhere in Asia.

“We have to take serious note of the fact that while there were no Indians among the 2008 Mumbai attackers, all the Easter Sunday suicide bombers were Sri Lankans. This is a threat that will have to be contained not only for Sri Lanka’s sake but for the well-being of all other nations in the region. This year, India went on alert on at least two occasions due to information that Islamic terrorists from Sri Lanka were trying to enter India by boat,” he added.

The Prime Minister said that unlike the war against the LTTE which required ground, sea and air operations, the new threat at this stage requires mainly intelligence operations.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)