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