The Sri Lankan government has strong forebodings of an LTTE attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen in the Gulf of Mannar to jeopardize diplomatic relations the forthcoming SAARC summit.

While the Gulf of Mannar remains the focus of the Tamil Nadu fishing fleet, Indians also poach north of Kankesanturai and Point Pedro and in some instances even in Mullaitivu waters.

Senior government officials asserted that the LTTE would try to trigger protests across Tamil Nadu by attacking Tamil Nadu fishermen causing embarrassment to both India and Sri Lanka, a senior official said. "We hope India will take all precautions to thwart the LTTE strategy."

The SLN has thrown a cordon in the Gulf of Mannar to discourage the LTTE from operating across the international maritime boundary. An official said this deployment was in addition to the regular operations conducted by the Northern Naval Command in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Straits.

The official warned the LTTE had attacked Tamil Nadu fishermen on numerous occasions since the outbreak of major ground battles in August, 2006.

Referring to the massacre of several Tamil Nadu fishermen off Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari coast, the seizure of the Sri Krishna, also in the Indian waters and the rescue of an Indian held in a trawler smuggling a stock of ammunition in Sri Lankan waters over the past two years, the official felt that the LTTE wouldn’t hesitate to take the lives of a few innocent people.

Although a section of Tamil Nadu political establishment had attempted to shield the LTTE, the Indian CID revealed the group’s hand in the massacre before a chance encounter in the Maldivian waters caused the destruction of Sri Krishna commandeered by the LTTE. Among the persons rescued by the Maldivian Coast Guard was the Indian Captain of the vessel who had been held against his wishes while his colleagues languished in an LTTE camp in the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan officials expressed confidence the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard would take maximum possible measures to deny the LTTE access to their waters. Over the past two years, India had arrested many LTTE operatives, in some instances in the company of their Indian associates, both on land and sea, they said. India also destroyed an explosives laden craft seized by the Indian Coast Guard off the Southern coast, they said.

Authoritative sources said India would deploy two warships off the western coast to display her strength. Although a section of the press had discussed the ‘high threat perception’ from the LTTE, the LTTE wouldn’t have anything in its depleted arsenal to justify the deployment of guided-missile destroyers, they said.

The Sri Lankan military said the LTTE wouldn’t be able to launch its aircraft without being detected or engage in any naval operation targeting Colombo and its suburbs which would warrant the Indian warships’ intervention. But the LTTE could try to trigger a couple of explosions in the city and its suburbs to humiliate the government, the sources said.

With the recent acquisition of Chinese interceptors, the SLAF has bolstered its capability to meet the threat posed by LTTE aircraft. The group is believed to have at least two small aircraft in the Wanni.

India has provided the SLAF with automatic 40 mm L-70 close range anti-aircraft guns and ‘Indra’ low-flying detection radars to counter the threat of the LTTE.