PM Narendra Modi may seek J Jayalalithaa aid to curb terror

New Delhi: When he meets with good friend J. Jayalalithaa on Tuesday, his aides dealing with the tenuous theme of national security are hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will share some of the contents of a high-priority note that has been gathering dust at the PMO and plead with the Tamil Nadu chief minister for absolute cooperation, unfettered by racial jingoism.

As the shadow of the Pakistani ISI gets larger in south India, particularly in Tamil Nadu as seen by some disturbing events in recent months, improving the Indo-Lanka ties could be as important to her as it is for Prime Minister Modi and President Mahinda Rajapaksa, highly placed sources in the intelligence agencies say.

“We have been watching with concern that ISI activities have been on the rise in the south, especially in Tamil Nadu identified as easy turf by them for various reasons. Some specific cases have come to our notice and some of them have fortunately ended in arrests. What’s also worrying is that the temperatures have been going up among some of the prominent Muslim groups in the state”, said a senior intelligence official.

The note for PMO is said to include three main components—the ISI watchtower operating out of the Pakistan high commission at Colombo, the incursions made so far into Tamil Nadu through local and foreign Muslim recruits and the dangerous shift of the Sri Lankan Government into Pakistani influence owing to help during the Eelam war and also the post-war ‘racist’ attacks on Sinhala visitors to TN.

“With Colombo depending less on India and the growing anti-Lanka protests and attacks in TN, the Rajapaksa government found an excuse to turn blind eye to the ISI activities in the island,” said another senior
official.