Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, May 15: India has extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the dreaded Sri Lankan separatist group, by two more years by declaring it as an unlawful association.

The notification to this effect was issued here on Wednesday, a press statement by the Federal Home Ministry said today.

India was the first country to proscribe the separatist outfit led by Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1992 after a special investigation team of the federal government unraveled the LTTE’s involvement in the brutal assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally at Sriperumbudur near the Tamil Nadu capital Chennai on the night of May 21, 1991.

The Indian ban is extended once every two years.

The LTTE has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by several countries, including the United States, the European Union, United Kingdom and Canada, among others.