A POLITICAL party based in Tamil Nadu, south India, is the link for a group of Malaysians, including some prominent personalities, trying to keep the spirit of Tamil Tigers movement alive, said sources.

The party, Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), headed by Seeman Senthamilan, has had several meetings with some prominent Malaysians over the years, with the aim of promoting its agenda of continuing the LTTE struggle, they said.

Among those with close contacts with Seeman and NTK are at least one of the seven men arrested on Thursday on suspicion of trying to revive the LTTE in Malaysia.

Several other VIPs are still free but the police are monitoring them, a source told The Malaysian Insight.

The Malaysian Insight knows the identities of these personalities but has decided against naming them in view of the ongoing investigations.

On Thursday, seven men, including two DAP assemblymen from Malacca and Negri Sembilan, were arrested on suspicion of promoting, supporting, channelling funds to and possessing materials related to LTTE.

The seven were detained in Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur.

They were held under the Special Offences (Security Measures) Act (Sosma) that allows for a 28-day detention.

Police sources also said another five suspects were arrested in Penang, Malacca and Selangor yesterday.

The police are expected to hold a press conference today to give details on these arrests.

Relating the influence of NTK on LTTE supporters in Malaysia, the source added that the original purpose of the party’s formation was to support LTTE and its struggle for a separate state from Sri Lanka, to be called Tamil Eelam.

“However, after LTTE was wiped out by the Sri Lankan army in 2010, its ideology shifted to supporting the Tamils in Sri Lanka by continuing to seek a separate state.

“At the same time, to gain the support of the Tamil diaspora worldwide, the party also started fighting for Tamil people’s rights and language.

“It started reaching out to countries with huge Tamil population, including Malaysia, for this purpose,” said the source.

Seeman has been visiting Malaysia since 2012 to expand his party’s influence and aims, including holding several meetings with some VIPs sympathetic to the Tamil Eelam cause.

Among them is Kalaimughilan Arjunan, one of the seven men detained on Thursday.

“Seeman instructed Kalaimughilan to establish the Malaysian chapter of NTK, to be called Naam Tamilar Malaysia.

“The first the aim of this chapter was to support former LTTE members but eventually it became an outfit to support the LTTE’s struggle,” said the source.

Kalaimughilan is known for his pro-LTTE stand which he shares on social media.

He was also involved in assaulting the Sri Lankan envoy to Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 2016.

Last September, he and two others were fined a total of RM9,500 each after they pleaded guilty to four charges, including assaulting the envoy.

Another source told The Malaysian Insight that Seeman launched the Malaysian chapter of his Tamil nationalist party at a restaurant in Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur on April 7, 2019 and opened up memberships to Indian Muslims in the area.

The police have previously said that they are not ruling out the possibility of more arrests to facilitate the probe into the LTTE terror group.

The LTTE has been listed as a terror group since 2014, and it is also on the terror lists of the US, India and Sri Lanka, where it was based. – October 13, 2019.