The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist militant organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka, had various organizations affiliated to it. These include charitable organizations, political parties, state intelligence organizations and even governments of Sri Lanka and other countries. Although the LTTE was militarily defeated in 2009, the Sri Lankan government alleges that a number of foreign-based organizations are still promoting its ideology.
Early beginnings
Established in 1972, Tamil New Tigers (TNT) was the precursor to the LTTE. After it was renamed as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and restructured under the leadership of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the group staged low key attacks against various government targets, including policemen and local politicians. During this period, LTTE was supported by Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which considered the militant organization as a tool to pressurize government to agree to their demands. TULF leader Appapillai Amirthalingam introduced Prabhakaran to N.S. Krishnan, who later became the first international representative of LTTE. It was Krishnan, who introduced Prabhakaran to Anton Balasingham, LTTE's longtime chief political strategist and principal negotiator. But this union was short lived. LTTE rose as a more prominent force than the TULF, and TULF was marginalised.
State affiliations
During the early 1980s, various geo-political compulsions prompted the Government of India to sponsor and nurture the Tamil Tigers by providing arms, training and monetary support through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). This relationship fell apart as LTTE declared war against Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), which was deployed to enforce disarmament of militant organizations and to watch over the regional council. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government under President Ranasinghe Premadasa, driven by its own compulsion to see the IPKF withdraw, clandestinely supported the LTTE by handing over arms consignments. This period ended with the withdrawal of IPKF in 1990 and the assassinations of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Premadasa in 1991 and 1993 respectively.
Affiliations to other militant organizations
Initially the LTTE had received training from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Southern Lebanon. LTTE was briefly associated with Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), a common militant front among 6 Tamil militant groups, from 1984 to 1986. In 1986, fighting broke out between LTTE and other groups due to policy differences. This resulted in almost the total annihilation of these groups by LTTE, which was far more effective and superior as a military force.
Links to other designated terrorist organisations
LTTE was believed to have few connections with other militant groups, although no association with al-Qaeda or any other Islamic terrorist organisations. But the group maintained interactions with other militant organisations through illegal arms markets in Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. It had also smuggled weapons from Pakistan-based Islamists to their counterparts in the Philippines. During the mid-1970s, LTTE rebels were known to have trained from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Southern Lebanon.
LTTE is alleged to have had connections with Maoist Naxalite movement, which is fighting to establish a Marxist Indian state, and Khalistan movement, which is fighting to create a separate Sikh state in India. However, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, LTTE’s former chief arms smuggler, denied that LTTE had any connection with these organizations operating inside India and stated that Prabhakaran was opposed to having any links with groups that interfered inside India. LTTE's shipping fleet is believed to have provided logistics support to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a Pakistani group with al-Qaeda affiliations, to transport a consignment of weapons to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines. They are also believed to have maintained close contact with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a group that shares similar goals and ideals to that of the LTTE. LTTE is also said to have sent two combat tacticians and explosive experts to the southern Philippines to train members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Rohan Gunaratna, a pro-government scholar and an international terrorism expert, alleged that LTTE supplied forged passports to Ramzi Yousef, who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.