One Of Interpol's Most Wanted Arrested In Thailand

[sriracha john]

Tamil Eelam leader not arrested here

Panithan Wattanayakorn, acting government spokesman, has denied a news agency report that the new leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka has been arrested in Bangkok.

“The Tamil Eelam leader was not arrested in Thailand as was reported by a foreign news agency,” Mr Panithan said on Friday morning. He admitted that the person concerned had made visits to Thailand.

State security agencies were checking information relating to the case, he said.

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/15...ted-in-thailand

-- Bangkok Post 2009-08-07

[Maizefarmer]

Its no secret the TT have used Thailand for years as a logistic base: remember the homemade submarine incident about 10 -12 years ago.

[sriracha john]

KP arrested, brought to Colombo

Sri Lanka confirms that LTTE’s remnant group leader Kumaran Pathmanathan alias KP has been arrested, brought to Colombo and now he is ‘vomiting’ to his Sri Lankan interrogators.

A source very close to the Sri Lanka President’s office told Asian Tribune that on Thursday President Mahinda Rajapaksa received a call from the Defence Ministry that KP has been arrested and brought to Colombo.

The source further added that Mahinda Rajapaksa received this call immediately after his prayers at the Temple of Tooth in Kandy, (Dalada Maligawa) appealing to the Deyeo – (God) ‘for strength to unite the country and bring about a sustainable peace in Sri Lanka.’

Though it was reported that KP was arrested in Thailand, (even in the Asian Tribune) the news is being contradicted by many LTTE sources living in the West.

According to “Puthinam,” a pro-LTTE Tamil language news portal, which promoted KP as the new leader of the LTTE, reported that KP was arrested in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in a joint operation conducted by Sri Lankan and Malaysian intelligence officers and not in Thailand.

Puthinam also published a new image of KP, which is completely different from what all the medias so far carried.

According to Puthinam, on Wednesday, KP went to the ‘Tune Hotel’ located at the Jalan Tuanku Absdul Rahman, in Kuala Lumpur to meet with the visiting Late B. Nadesan’s brother and son.

Puthunam further revealed that while he was closeted in the hotel room with the visitors, he received a call and he came out of the room to continue his conversation.

“When KP came out of the room he was apprehended by the Malaysian and Sri Lankan intelligence operatives and packed off to Colombo on Thursday, after holding initial investigation and confirmation that they have netted the right person.

Asian Tribune further learnt that the map of the arrest of KP was ‘sketched out’ by the arrested LTTE leaders, who are in the custody of the Sri Lankan Army and especially by a former LTTE intelligence chief.

In the meantime, Asian Tribune also learns that already RAW, – Research Analysis Wing – the intelligence unit of India is in touch with Sri Lanka regarding KP, as he is wanted in the Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

Furthermore it is rumored that Sri Lankan intelligence has initiated a secret move to net a high profile New York based LTTE Lawyer.

- Asian Tribune / 2009-08-07

Edited August 7, 2009 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

The new image of Kumaran Pathmanathan.

Asian Tribune / 2009-08-07

[Maizefarmer]

"Vomiting to his interagators ....." - he'll be more than vomiting by the time the Sri Lankan spooks have finished interviewing him.

[OriginalPoster]

Also, some people may find this strange, but for me, i always heard that the current regime over Sri Lanka is one of the most suppressive and abusive ones?

That's certainly the editorial position of the BBC. However the government does presently enough tremendous popularity amongst the general population in Sri Lanka, mostly because people are taking government claims that the Tigers are finished at face value. Most seem to be hopeful that the country can finally live in peace and start to have some economic development; few outside of fomer Tiger stronghold areas seem to be troubled by the "supressive" tactics the governemnt used to smash the Tigers. The BBC, it seems, would have preferred for government to negogiate with the Tigers for the next hundred years and for Sri Lankans to live in a perpetual state of war in the interim.

[sriracha john]

Sri Lankan military questions captured Tamil rebel leader

Colombo - The new leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel movement has been arrested outside Sri Lanka and returned home for questioning, Defence Ministry spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said Friday. He said Kumaran Pathmanathan, also known as KP, was arrested Thursday in a country in the "Asian region," but declined to name the country, saying that it would hamper the investigation.

Earlier reports said the newly designation rebel leader was arrested in Thailand, but the Sri Lankan High Commission in Bangkok denied the report.

Thai police said he was arrested in Singapore and only transited through Bangkok early Friday en route to Colombo.

Other reports suggested he was nabbed in Malaysia.

"After the LTTE was crushed they hoped that the movement could be revived with the emergence of Pathmanathan, but we have proved that we have the capability of getting to them wherever they emerge," Rambukwella said.

Remnants of the Tamil rebel movement appointed Pathmanathan as their leader last month after they were defeated by the Sri Lankan Army and the previous rebel commander, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed in battle on May 18.

"There were some doubts about the government's achievements of crushing the LTTE after Pathmanathan surfaced. Now there can't be any doubts about that," he said.

Pathmanathan had been known as the rebel movement's main arms procurement agent and had been operating in Thailand and other countries, although his recent whereabouts had not been known.

He is also wanted by India in connection of the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

"We are willing to consider any request from any country keeping with the conventions or treaties we have with them to allow Pathmananthan be questioned," Rambukwella said.

He said that Pathmanathan was being questioned by local defence authorities but did not disclose details of confessions or statements made by the rebel leader.

Pathmanathan has a Thai wife and in the past had often been in and out of Thailand.

In a statement issued last month, the LTTE rebels said they had set up a new headquarters and formed sector-based working groups and an executive committee to continue their struggle for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. They did not say where their new headquarters was located.

The Sri Lankan government has vowed not to allow the rebel movement to rise again after it killed its entire leadership to end a 26-year-long armed conflict in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

About 10,000 rebels are said to have been arrested or surrendered to security forces, and some of them are currently undergoing rehabilitation, the government said. Others are to be charged with crimes.

- DPA / 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

Thailand denies Tamil Tiger leader arrested in country

BANGKOK, Aug 7 (TNA) - Thailand on Friday denied reports that the new leader of Sri Lanka's recently defeated Tamil Tiger separatists was captured ant an undisclosed location in the kingdom, while foreign media said the rebel leader was arrested in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.

The comments of the Thai government and security agencies came after Sri Lanka's Island newspaper reported that Selvarasa Pathmanathan, a foreign-based leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was taken to Sri Lanka on Thursday for questioning after being arrested in Thailand.

Mr Pathmanathan assumed the overall leadership of LTTE following the death of its top leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the separatist organisation’s last stand against Sri Lankan security forces in mid-May.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said after receiving the report that he ordered Thai security agencies to seek further details on the arrest of Pathmanathan. better known as KP, while the Thai Special Branch commander Theeradej Rodphothong insisted that the LTTE head was captured in Singapore, not in Thailand.

Pol Lt-Gen Theeradej noted that Thailand was mentioned in the news report because the LTTE head formerly had a Thai wife and he usually moved among three Southeast Asian countries--Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Gen Theeradej added that a Thai court had issued an arrest warrant against KP last November, as he was wanted by the Sri Lankan government.

Acting Thai government spokesperson Panittan Wattanayakorn earlier admitted that an initial report showed Pathmanathan had traveled in and out of Thailand because he was married to a Thai and formerly lived in the northern part of the country.

However, Agence-France-Presse (AFP) and the Associated Press (AP) later quoted the Mr Panitan as saying that Thailand’s National Intelligence Agency confirmed that Mr Pathmanathan was arrested in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday night and was transferred to Sri Lanka via Bangkok.

The Associated Press also quoted an LTTE statement that their leader was arrested Wednesday in a Kuala Lumpur hotel, but Malaysian officials declined to comment.

Where the Tamil leader was arrested remains unconfirmed. The French agency later quoted a Sri Lankan military spokesman saying only that Pathmanathan "was arrested abroad" without saying where.

-- TNA 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

Sri Lanka snares new Tamil Tiger head overseas

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka on Friday said it had captured and was interrogating the new head of the Tamil Tigers, their most-wanted target since crushing the separatist rebels and their 25-year insurrection in May.

But mystery remained over exactly where Selvarajah Pathmanathan, who ran the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) lucrative arms and smuggling operations for decades, was arrested.

Pathmanathan is the public face of the LTTE's post-war remnants and the highest-ranking Tiger still alive, after troops killed LTTE founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran in the war's cataclysmic final battle on the northeastern coast on May 18.

The fact that Pathmanathan was in Sri Lankan custody helped push the Colombo Stock Exchange to its highest level in more than 14 months, gaining 0.7 percent in the first 90 minutes of trade.

Sri Lanka declined to say where he was arrested, after initially saying Pathmanathan -- better known by his nickname KP -- had been picked up in Thailand.

"We are quite capable of demolishing LTTE activities anywhere in the world. We have the capacity and assistance," defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said.

Thailand's prime minister on Friday denied Pathmanathan had been arrested there. The LTTE, in an emailed statement, said he had been arrested by Malaysian intelligence officers on Wednesday, but Malaysian authorities denied that.

MANHUNT

Sri Lankan officials said diplomatic necessities precluded naming the exact location where he was arrested.

"It is a sensitive issue and the government wants to respect the wishes of all parties involved," a senior Sri Lankan official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Thai authorities arrested Pathmanathan in 2007 and were ready to hand him over on condition their involvement was not known.

But he escaped after Sri Lanka publicised his arrest there, and Thailand denied he was ever in custody, diplomats with knowledge of the incident say. Earlier this year, Sri Lanka was infuriated when a European diplomat met KP in Kuala Lumpur.

Sri Lanka has stepped up diplomatic and intelligence efforts to hunt down Pathmanathan since he assumed the mantle of the new LTTE leader after Prabhakaran's death.

After a brief feud with other LTTE officials overseas, which analysts say was over control of the hundreds of millions in hidden Tiger assets, Pathmanathan emerged as the new leader.

He pledged to create a government-in-exile to push the LTTE's vision a separate nation for Sri Lanka's minority Tamils in a non-violent and democratic way.

One of the original Tigers, Pathmanathan dodged authorities for nearly three decades and built the LTTE's smuggling, weapons procurement and fundraising capacity into a multi-million dollar enterprise known as the "KP Department."

At the height of his powers, KP operated a fleet of freighters for smuggling, dealt in arms bazaars in Eritrea, to Afghanistan and Ukraine and raised millions from fundraising appeals and outright extortion from expatriate Tamils.

Long believed to be in hiding in bases from Myanmar, Malaysia and Thailand, he had dozens of passports and more than enough money to buy his way out of trouble -- security experts say the LTTE was earning between $200 (119 million pounds)-300 million annually.

However, the LTTE's presence on U.S., EU, Indian and Canadian terrorist lists sharply curtailed his operations, and KP re-emerged earlier this year when Prabhakaran named his old friend the LTTE's head of international relations.

-- Reuters 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

PM orders probe of report that Tamil Tiger leader arrested in Thailand

BANGKOK, Aug 7 (TNA) - Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Friday that he has ordered the country’s security agencies to provide details following a news report that the head of Sri Lanka's recently defeated Tamil Tiger separatists was captured in Thailand.

The French news agency Agence-France-Presse (AFP) earlier reported that Selvarasa Pathmanathan, a foreign-based leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was returned to Sri Lanka on Thursday for questioning after being arrested in Thailand.

Mr Pathmanathan assumed the leadership of LTTE overall following the death of its supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the separatist organisation’s last stand against Sri Lankan security forces in mid-May.

The Thai premier said he was informed of the matter late Thursday night and he had assigned the security agencies to seek more details.

Acting Government Spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said an initial report said Pathmanathan had travelled in and out of Thailand but it was not identified where he was arrested.

Mr Panitan, however, noted that Mr Pathmanathan reportedly was married to a Thai and lived in the northern part of the country.

Meanwhile, Thailand's Special Branch police chief Theeradej Rodphothong said that the LTTE head was captured in Singapore, not in Thailand.

Lt-Gen Theeradej noted that Thailand was mentioned in the news report becuase the LTTE head formerly had a Thai wife and he usually moved among three Southeast Asian countries--Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

-- TNA 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

Police confirms Tamil Eelam Tigers core leader not arrested in Bangkok

BANGKOK, 7 August 2009 (NNT) – The Special Branch Police has confirmed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam core leader was not arrested in Bangkok as earlier claimed in the news report, saying that the arrest took place in Singapore.

Special Branch Police Commander Police Lieutenant-General Theeradej Rodpothong confirmed that the arrest was made by the Singaporean authorities in Singapore, not in Thailand as some news reports said earlier.

Police Lieutenant-General Theeradej elaborated that the arrested Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam core leader had a wife in Thailand and usually made movements in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. He said therefore the news report of the arrest was then linked to Thailand.

-- NNT 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

NEW LTTE LEADER KP WAS BETRAYED BY HIS OWN MEN

Sources close to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and other Tamil sources believe that KP alias Selvarasa Pathmanathan was betrayed to the Sri Lankan authorities by tipping off his whereabouts before being arrested on Interpol warrants.

Well informed Tamil journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj said, “It is widely believed that the arrest was made possible through “inside information” supplied by some members of the LTTE abroad who were opposed to KP donning the tiger leadership mantle after the demise of supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.”

The journalist further said that contrary to earlier reports he was not arrested in Bangkok, Thailand but in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while he was meeting a London delegation in a hotel.According to him he was taken from the Malaysian capital to Bangkok, Thailand before being flown to Colombo on a special flight where he is being interrogated by Sri Lankan detectives.

The Jeyaraj report said, “He had received a call on his cellular phone. KP had then signaled to his visitors that he was going out to the corridor and walked away while conversing on the phone."

“He had not returned for a long time and when the worried visitors from Britain went out in search there was no sign of the new global tiger chief."

“Meanwhile the friend who had been talking to KP on the phone had heard a sudden thud and some noise while chatting. The phone went dead and repeated calls were not successful."

“The friend then alerted some assistants of KP in Malaysia who went in search of KP to the place where he was staying in KL. The place was empty, but KP’s insulin and syringes and other medical stuff was still there.”

KP, a witty man who, with ease, made deals on gun running with some of the most tough arms dealers in the world also had his enemies inside the LTTE. Once he retired to the unknown married a Thai woman when others who were greedy of his arms procuring business took over. But he had to come as the others were not as capable like him. When he took over as the LTTE leader others opposed him on flimsy grounds.

Jeyaraj said, “(His leadership) was vehemently opposed by a section of the Diasporic tigers led by Perinbanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan”

Speculators have said most of the LTTE elements would start fighting for the millions of dollars piled up in places like London.

Although KP was the most precious prize they wanted the government is also on the look out for others. President Rajapaksa speaking in Kandy said,that the government is also on the manhunt for the other remnants of the LTTE. Another on target is believed to be Castro who was also on LTTE’s procurement business.

- Lanka Web / 2009-08-07

[sriracha john]

Thai PM: Tamil Tiger leader held, but not in Thailand

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's prime minister said on Friday he had information the new head of the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group defeated by the Sri Lankan military after a 25-year war, had been arrested -- but not in Thailand.

A Sri Lankan military spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, said late on Thursday that Selvarajah Pathmanathan, wanted on two Interpol warrants, had been arrested in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

"I can confirm that this person was not arrested in Thailand. According to information, he was arrested in another country," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told Reuters.

A Thai government spokesman could give no further details on where the arrest had taken place.

Pathmanathan took the reins of the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) after their military defeat in May.

-- Reuters 2009-08-07

[stevoo]

thats tony from the airport scam

[sriracha john]

Tiger chief arrested and sent back for questioning

KUALA LUMPUR: Self-appointed chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Selvarasa Pathmanathan has been arrested in a South-East Asian country on Wednesday and flown back to the island nation for questioning, said Sri Lankan authorities.

However, there were conflicting reports as to which country he was arrested in, with Thailand and Malaysia saying they had no knowledge of the capture.

The rebels said in a statement that Pathmanathan, also known as KP, was arrested near a hotel here.

The pro-rebel website said Pathmanathan had gone to the hotel to meet relatives of the group’s slain political leader Balasingham Nadesan.

He left the room to answer a phone call, but did not return, it said.

When asked to comment, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said he could not confirm that Pathmanathan was arrested here.

“I cannot confirm this. I don’t have the facts with me. I will find out about the matter first,” he told reporters after launching the Majlis Jalinan Rakyat at the people’s housing project at Batu Muda, Jalan Ipoh, here yesterday.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said he knew nothing about the arrest and declined to comment further.

The Associated Press reported that Pathmanathan, 54, was once the top arms negotiator and financial controller of the Tigers, headed by Velupillai Prabakaran until he was killed on May 18.

Since then, Pathmanathan has been on the run and was believed to be operating from a South-East Asian country, shuttling to several European countries under different identities while trying to revive the armed movement.

In another development, Sri Lanka’s Island newspaper quoted anonymous sources as saying that Pathmanathan had been captured in Thailand.

Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn denied he had been arrested there but said there were “reports that he has been travelling in and out of Thailand.”

A Thai military intelligence official said Pathamanathan had been hiding in northern Thailand under a false identity in recent months.

- The Star (Malaysia) / 2009-08-08

[sawadeeken]

By the 3rd or 4th page you finally start to know what is happening................. Sounds like they do have him in Colombo, and more power to them............ The likes of him need to be brought under control, and they may be doing just that...............

Edited August 8, 2009 by sawadeeken

[Mario2008]

Toppic running here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Internationa...-P-t286656.html

This one is closed.