Daily Times

India has long been blamed for the intransigence of its intelligence agency RAW in Sri Lanka. Indian role in creating, training, financing and supporting the LTTE as a terrorist movement and India’s war crimes committed on Sri Lankan citizens by the IPKF are well documented. Prabhakaran, a RAW protégé, went on to become a Frankenstein. On 26 May 1987, Prabhakaran was cornered in Vadamarachchi and would have been caught by the Sri Lankan troops had India not intervened to threaten military intervention if Prabhakaran was not released. Thereafter, Prabhakaran was flown in an Indian aircraft to India to show India meant business.

India became more actively involved in the late 1980s, and on June 5, 1987, the Indian Air Force airdropped food parcels to Jaffna while it was under siege by Sri Lankan forces. At a time when the Sri Lankan government stated they were close to defeating the LTTE, India dropped 25 tons of food, medicine and weapons by parachute into areas held by the LTTE in a direct move of support toward the rebels.

The scale of crimes committed by Indian troops in Sri Lanka were unprecedented. Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent to Sri Lanka without the consent of the Indian Parliament. Prabhakaran himself said that it was the atrocities committed by the IPKF that contributed towards his decision to kill Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. This corroborates with Former LTTE military commander turned Minister V. Muralitharan or Karuna Amman who claims that the LTTE female cadre, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam, also known as Dhanu, who killed Rajiv had been raped by the IPKF. While even the Supreme Court of India in its verdict claimed that the Rajiv assassination was a retaliation for the IPKF atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Despite Indian claims of having uncovered the dastardly plot for the 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and having warned the Sri Lankan officials before the crime occurred, it has now been learnt that Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind of Sri Lankan Blasts travelled to India 3 months back for training

Indian interference in Sri Lanka’s affairs have continued unabated. Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa claims that RAW manipulated the elections to ensure his polls defeat since he was seen to be developing better relations with China and Pakistan, much to the chagrin of New Delhi.

Reportedly, Indian opposition to Sri Lanka’s purchase of JF-17 Thunder Fighter aircraft from Pakistan killed the deal. Despite its own financial crunch, Pakistan was also said to be ready to extend a line of credit to Sri Lanka for the aircraft. The Indian government delivered a non-paper – diplomatic parlance for a white sheet of paper without a letterhead or signature – to Colombo at the highest levels about three weeks ago after reports that Pakistan was seriously engaging the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) on the Chinese fighter aircraft to replace the SLAF’s ageing fleet of Israeli Kfirs and MiG-27s. Ironically India offered its own obsolete LCA Tejas to Sri Lanka.

Despite Indian claims of having uncovered the dastardly plot for the 21 April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and having warned the Sri Lankan officials before the crime occurred, it has now been learnt that Zahran Hashim, the alleged mastermind of Sri Lankan Blasts travelled to India 3 months back for training.

It is no coincidence that a suicide bomber spent the night of 20/21 April at Taj Sumudra Hotel but didn’t blast there in the morning and went to some other area. It has been reported that the Indian High Commission and agencies knew everything 20 days before the attack and also gave final warning an hour before the deadly blasts. Indian High Commission didn’t ask for security from local authorities despite having confirmed reports of being a target. The Indian High Commissioner, euphemistically known as the viceroy of Sri Lanka due to his domineering conduct, didn’t appear in Ambassador’s brief conducted by the Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister.

These revelations raise the question, whether RAW is more powerful and prevalent in Sri Lanka than the Sri Lankan agencies? Tamil Nado, India has been the breeding ground for the modern suicide bombing trend. Terrorists’ around the world have learnt the art and tactics of making suicide bombs and successful execution from Tamil Nado.

India has a history of interfering in internal matters of all the neighbouring countries in order to raise its stature as regional policeman and to prove the notion of being the net regional Security provider. It seems that despite being engaged in general elections in India, its intelligence agency RAW is continuing on its agenda of destabilizing its neighbours to subjugate them and keep them under its thumb. The 16 February 2019 False Flag operations at Pulwama and the subsequent Indian actions of surgical strikes at Balakot and the IAF debacle at the Line of Control on 26/27 February have taught no lessons to India. During the initial stages of the eater Sunday carnage, India started a whispering campaign against Pakistan but now it has been learnt that India was involved in the Sri Lankan bombings.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host