The Centre on Tuesday extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for five more years with immediate effect for posing a threat to “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India”.

In a notification dated May 14, 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs renewed its 2014 notification to ban LTTE under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967. The ministry said the LTTE “continues to adopt a strong anti-India posture as also continues to pose a grave threat to the security of Indian nationals”.

The LTTE was formed by V Prabhakaran in 1976 to fight for independence of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan army killed him in 2009 after the defeat of the Tamil separatist group following a 25-year-long civil war. Prabhakaran had ordered the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

The notification said though the LTTE is based in Sri Lanka, it has sympathisers in India, and the organisation’s objective for a separate homeland for Tamils, or Tamil Eelam, 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 Diaspora continue to spread through articles in the Internet portals, anti-India feeling amongst the Sri Lankan Tamils by holding the Government of India responsible for the defeat of the LTTE and such propaganda through Internet, which remains continued, is likely to impact Very Very Important Persons (VVIP) security adversely in India,” the notification added.