A senior government official yesterday told The Island that the government was making an attempt to ascertain the amount of money deposited with the so-called the ‘eelam bank’ by people living in the LTTE-controlled area before the army liberated all civilian centres.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he said that the LTTE had forced the Tamil diaspora to transfer funds through its clandestine banking system for years. He said with the collapse of the LTTE’s administrative system along with that bank thousands of depositors were in trouble.

He said that authorities would be able to make inquiries from people held in welfare centres in the Vanni and Jaffna about the clandestine ‘bank’ and its operations.