LTTE links bared in Thailand

MADRID: Spanish and Thai police investigating a gang that supplied forged passports to al-Qaeda-linked groups have found new evidence of links to Sri Lanka's LTTE, Spanish authorities said.

Spanish and Thai police are analysing material seized in a joint operation in which 10 people - eight Pakistanis, a Nigerian and a Thai national were arrested in the two countries, Spain's Interior Ministry said yesterday in a statement.

The 10 are suspected of providing forged passports to organisations linked to al-Qaeda, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, accused of plotting the attacks in Mumbai that killed 174 people in November 2008, as well as to the Tigers. Police seized forged passports, immigration documents, faked rubber stamps, computers, mobile phones, passport photos, British driving licences and sophisticated counterfeiting equipment in the swoop named "Operation Kampai".

Spanish police experts "have travelled to Thailand and are working with Thailand's Department of Special Investigation to analyse the numerous documents seized from the cell'', the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

"An initial examination of photographs seized has turned up evidence of the membership of some members of the terrorist organisation, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam." AFP