The JVP, in spite of its much flaunted anti-separatist postures which even led to its breakaway from the present government in 2005 in protest against President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s offer to share tsunami aid with the Tigers, had contacts with the LTTE during the height of southern terrorism in the late 1980s, Head of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) Intelligence Col. R. Hariharan (retd.) has revealed.

Col. Hariharan in an article, Intelligence in India’s Sri Lanka War (see page 07 for full text) highlighting the odds against which the IPKF had conducted its operations in Sri Lanka points out that one of the three strategic developments which the IPKF thought would destabilise its operations was the contacts between the LTTE and the JVP.

He says: "At the field level, OFC MI [Operational Force Command Military Intelligence] had set itself the task of keeping abreast of three strategic developments that could destabilise the IPKF operations. These were: The acquisition of MANPADS [Man Portable Air Defence Systems] by the LTTE, contacts between the LTTE and the Marxist Sinhala militant group Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) operating in the other parts of Sri Lanka and collaboration between the LTTE and elements of the Government of Sri Lanka."

Col. Hariharan does not elaborate on the links between the LTTT and the JVP but according to sources who conducted counter terror operations in the southern parts of the country, it was at the feet of the northern terrorists that the JVP killer squads mastered the landmine technology, having tried their hand at mine attacks on politicians, the police and the armed forces personnel without much success. Towards the end of the JVP’s terror spree, southern terrorists were able to carry out mine attacks with devastating accuracy.

There have been no confrontations between the LTTE and the JVP, though they have been critical of each other.

However, after its re-emergence following decapitation at the hands of the Premadasa regime in 1989, the JVP became the most vociferous opponent of the peace processes under the Kumaratunga government and the UNF government.

It has been advocating the eradication of LTTE terrorism at any cost. Its advocacy of a military solution was the main reason why it decided to support the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 2005 Presidential Elections.