SriLanka-India deepen cooperation to combat terrorism

[SpArK]

Lanka-India deepen cooperation to combat terrorism​

T V Sriram Colombo, Sep 25 (PTI) Colombo and New Delhi have agreed on intelligence sharing to combat an upsurge in terror activities in the region, amid reports that the Pakistan-based militant group LeT was planning to use Sri Lanka as a staging ground to enter India.

"We have a clear understanding with India on a combined surveillance strategy where we share information.India is more aware about the happenings in this region than anyone else and thus any activity will be picked up and shared with Sri Lanka," Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror newspaper today.


Days after the powerful Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa denied reports of a terror group targeting India operating from Sri Lanka, Rambukwella said the two neighours Colombo were coordinating to prevent any such subversive activity in the region.


Rambukwella was responding to a query on reports that the United States had passed on information to the two countries of there being some 200 Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) cadres � a Pakistan-based terror group -- planning to use Sri Lanka as a staging ground to enter India.He said New Delhi and Colombo are collaborating with each other in maintaining an advanced intelligence network and it would pick up any news on terrorist activities in the region.Rambukwella said claims that Sri Lanka was being used as a training ground for the LeT cadres was fabricated by groups with a different agenda.


Sri Lanka has said that no militant group was operating on its soil after the elimination of the LTTE in May last year. Rajapaksa, the brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a statement earlier this month, had said Sri Lanka was free of "terrorists" and there was no ground for militants to receive training in his country.


His remarks came in the wake of reported claims of 29-year-old Mirza Himayat Baig, the alleged conspirator and co-planter of the bomb placed at Pune's German bakery, that he had received terror training in Colombo.Earlier this week, a top US counter-terrorism official warned that the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be an "appealing target" for the LeT due to its political and economic significance for India.


"We are concerned that next month's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be an appealing target for Lashkar-e-Toiba due to their political and economic significance for India," Michael Leiter, the Director of the US National Counter-terrorism Centre, said in Washington on Wednesday. PTI TVS


Lanka-India deepen cooperation to combat terrorism, IBN Live News