Indian police on lookout for Tamil rebels

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NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Indian police say they are on the lookout for 50 Sri Lankan Tamil rebels who are hiding in southern Tamil Nadu state.

The Q branch of the Tamil Nadu police is on the lookout for nearly 50 suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The special branch of state police said it believes suspected rebels have been working with Thambidurai Padmanabhan, a member of the LTTE's intelligence wing arrested last week in Chennai, a state police spokesman said.

The spokesman said an alert had been sounded at Chennai airport and coastal districts for the LTTE suspects. He said Thambidurai was arrested along with seven other Tamil rebels for conspiring to kidnap local political leader Varadaraja Perumal from suburban Madipakkam.

The officials from Q branch said the wing was on the lookout for LTTE operatives. Officials at local airports said sleuths were monitoring all Colombo-bound flights as well as those flying to Paris, London and Frankfurt, Germany.

"Q men have been stationed near the immigration counters since Monday with the names of nearly 50 Sri Lankan Tamils. Over the last couple of days, they have been looking out for Tigers or their supporters," airport officials said.

The LTTE is fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is an Indian state and is home to millions of ethnic Indian Tamils.