Ban on LTTE extended for 5 more yrs

New Delhi: The central government on Tuesday extended for five more years the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terror group that was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The ban has been extended under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, a notification issued by the Union Home ministry stated.

India had banned the LTTE after the assassination of Gandhi in 1991. The ban on the group was last extended for five years in 2014.

The LTTE, a terror outfit based in Sri Lanka but has its supporters, sympathisers and agents in India, came up in 1976.

Its objective for a separate homeland (Tamil Eelam) for all Tamils threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India, and amounts to cession and secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union and thus falls within the ambit of unlawful activities, the notification said.

The LTTE's continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India, it said.