Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry has revived its counter terrorism unit with its most important priority being to coordinate efforts to lobby for the continued proscription of the LTTE abroad, Colombo Gazette reports.
The unit was revived to coordinate more closely between defence, law enforcement authorities and other relevant agencies, and Sri Lankan missions abroad on counter terrorism and crime, according to the newspaper.
Earlier this month, the job description of a former defence attache at the Sri Lankan High Commission in London was revealed to include monitoring ‘anti-Sri Lanka activities in the UK’, ‘monitoring any LTTE activities’, bringing to notice ‘any anti government protests’ and ‘execute appropriate strategies to counter it’.
Tamil activists said that the information, submitted in a British court during the trial of former defence attache Brigadier Priyanka Fernando who made threatening gestures at Tamil protesters, confirmed many activists’ concerns that the High Commission was surveilling Tamils in the UK.
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