Extension of Ban on LTTE

Why in news?

The Centre recently extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another 5 years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).

What is the UAP Act?

• The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) is India’s primary anti-terror law.
• It provides for effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations.
• It helps deal with terrorist activities, and for matters connected therewith.
• Section 3 of the UAPA deals with the declaration of an association as unlawful.
• It specifies that notifications by the government making such a declaration shall specify the grounds on which it is issued.
• The notification shall also contain such other particulars as the Central government may consider necessary.

What is the recent decision?

• The ban on LTTE is extended under sub-sections (1) and (3) of Section 3 of the UAPA with immediate effect.
• The notification noted that LTTE's continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India.
• It continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture as also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals.
• Organisations banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Section 3 of the UAPA are listed in the First Schedule of the Act.
• The latest version of the list contains 41 entries, including, apart from the LTTE, Khalistani terrorist organisations, Pakistan-based terror groups, Islamic State or Daesh, and Indian Mujahideen.
• It also includes some Northeastern militant organisations, Kashmiri separatist organisations, Maoist groups, and the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

Who are the LTTEs?

• The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was founded in 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran.
• The goal of the organisation was creating an independent Tamil Eelam out of Sri Lanka.
• With this motive, the LTTE constantly clashed with the Sri Lankan military.
• In the early 1980s, it launched a full-scale nationalist insurgency in the north and east of the country.
• It carried out a string of major terrorist attacks against both military and civilian targets.

How has India and LTTE been?

• India’s relationship with the LTTE had been complex.
• It has ranged from providing support to the guerrillas initially to sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) to support Sri Lanka from 1987 to 1990.
• The LTTE pioneered suicide bombing as a weapon of terror.
• In 1991, an LTTE suicide bomber killed former Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi in an attack on Indian soil.
• India first banned the LTTE after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi; the ban was last extended for five years in 2014.

How is the terrorist orientation?

• Among the other high-profile assassinations carried out by LTTE was that of the Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993.
• The LTTE is also said to have freely used women and children in combat.
• At its peak, the LTTE covered over three-quarters of Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern provinces.
• The organisation was finally crushed in a military offensive by the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2009.
• The LTTE was designated as a terrorist organisation by 32 countries, including, besides India, the U.S., Canada, and the EU.
• The US designated the LTTE as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) in 1997.

Source: Indian Express