HUNT for KP

The Sri Lankan government yesterday sought international police (Interpol) assistance to locate and arrest the LTTE’s arms procurement chief Kumaran Padmanadan alias KP believed to be hiding somewhere in South East Asia.

Government sources said countries alerted included Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand from where KP was believed to be operating while Australia and Britain were also indicated as likely countries where KP could be living.

Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona confirmed to Daily Mirror that Interpol assistance was sought to have KP arrested and investigations into his whereabouts were currently underway.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in an interview with a private television station on Sunday night also called on the international community and Interpol to assist in arresting KP as he was an LTTE arms smuggler.

Foreign Ministry sources said the Sri Lankan government had contacted the countries where the top Tiger was believed to be hiding and these countries had assured that it would be on the look out for the LTTE’s arms procurement chief.

“Arresting KP will demolish the LTTE. KP has for decades being the kingpin of the illegal arms racket and was the main financial supplier for the LTTE. He is believed to have a many international links,” sources said.

It is learnt that slain LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran had contacted KP in the final hours before his death and urged KP to rescue him and the trapped cadres from area the LTTE was cornered in.

KP is said to have assured Prabhakaran that he was doing his best to get him and his cadres out of the North and had sought the assistance of leading figures in the international community to rescue the LTTE Leader.

“In the final hours Prabhakaran spoke to KP, urging him to save him. KP obviously gave him false hope that he was trying to do something,” Minister Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman said.

KP was born in Jaffna in 1955 and is said to have more than 20 passports under five different names. As a globe trotter, he is said to operate with ease whether from Bangkok, London, Frankfurt, Athens, Australia or Cambodia.

KP has been using Thailand as a major trans-shipment point for weapons acquired from war-torn Cambodia and other places across the globe. He is in charge of the LTTE’s fleet of ships, which transport arms in addition to legitimate cargo.

KP is also believed to have been in Mumbai at the time former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991. He escaped within five days of the event when he received information of a manhunt for him.

However, KP was not directly linked to the assassination and was not among the 41 people against whom the special investigating team filed a charge sheet.

Later, the CBI had wanted him for arms smuggling, and Interpol’s assistance was sought to arrest him.

Since 1991, the Indian Navy and its agencies had been keeping a tab on KP and the LTTE's arms procurement and smuggling activities and had helped the Sri Lankan government to destroy some of the gun-running ships.

By Jamila Najmuddin (Dialy Mirror)