If India didn’t jail RAW officers for arming the LTTE which killed Rajiv Gandhi — why is Sri Lanka criminalizing Suresh Sallay?

 

 

Intelligence agencies worldwide routinely engage, monitor, and penetrate extremist networks. Some assets later become enemies, terrorists, or insurgents. That reversal cannot be criminally pinned on intelligence officers. If it were, every major intelligence service — and every nation’s defense system — would collapse.

 

International intelligence doctrine — including HUMINT frameworks recognized by NATO, INTERPOL, and UN counter-terror task forces — explicitly mandates engagement and monitoring of hostile actors for threat mapping, infiltration, and disruption.

 

India, RAW & the LTTE

 

India’s intelligence agency RAW first trained and armed the LTTE under Indira Gandhi. Later, her son, Rajiv Gandhi, continued political and covert support.

In 1987, India despatched the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to neutralize the LTTE — sparking bitter retaliation.

The very group India nurtured and later tried to suppress assassinated its own Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Not a single RAW officer was prosecuted.

If India didn’t jail RAW officers for creating, arming, and provoking the LTTE — which killed Rajiv Gandhi — why is Sri Lanka criminalizing Suresh Sallay for engaging Zahran Hashim years before the Easter attacks?

 

What RAW Actually Did (1983–1987)

RAW:
• Trained LTTE cadres in Tamil Nadu
• Supplied weapons, explosives, and logistics
• Provided safe houses and travel facilitation
• Ran military training camps
• Enabled sea smuggling routes

This directly enabled:
• Suicide bombings
• Mass civilian massacres
• Political assassinations
• Ethnic cleansing
• Child soldier recruitment
• Tamil Nadu as a logistics hub
• Rajiv Gandhi assassination (blowback)

 

If intelligence contact = guilt, then:
Every RAW officer who trained Prabhakaran should be in prison.

 

But instead:
• RAW officers were promoted
• Indian governments never prosecuted anyone
• India framed it as a strategic miscalculation, not criminal conspiracy

Now ask:
Did India imprison RAW officers for creating the force that killed their own Prime Minister?
Answer: No.

 

Because:
Intelligence engagement that produces blowback is a strategic failure — not criminal guilt.

 

If:
RAW → trained LTTE → LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi
→ NO RAW OFFICERS IMPRISONED

 

Then:
Sri Lankan intel → engaged extremists → extremists commit attacks
→ WHY IS SURESH SALLAY ACCUSED?

 

This is political targeting, not justice.

 

National Defense Intel Cases should not be tried in Civil Courts

• National defense intelligence operations involvesensitive information.
• Civil court trialsexpose secrets to the public and enemies.
• Criminalizing intel operationsundermines national security.
• Operational risks increase if officers fearlegal retaliation.

 

Applying the Same Logic to Suresh Sallay & Zahran Hashim

Zahran Hashim did not emerge in a vacuum.

During LTTE-era violence in Eastern Sri Lanka:
• LTTE units attacked Muslim communities, mosques, traders, and civilians
• Eastern Muslims were under severe threat

Intelligence records indicate Zahran was monitored and engaged at a local level for:
• Threat mapping
• Intelligence gathering
• Monitoring extremist spillover

 

Phase 1 – Intelligence Engagement (LTTE era):
Zahran was a monitored contact — not an ideological partner. This is standard intelligence practice in conflict zones and ethno-religious flashpoints.

 

Phase 2 – Post-War Radicalization (Post-2009):
Zahran later:
• Adopted global jihadist ideology
• Aligned with ISIS
• Built suicide terror infrastructure

 

At this stage, he was no longer an intelligence asset.

If early intelligence contact → later terrorist acts → officer criminal guilt, this logic is false and legally absurd.

 

However, monitoring units were set up to shadow his group but these units were disbanded in 2015 following regime change and as per media reports the tasked intel officers were imprisoned.

Criminal liability requires:

• Intent
• Proximate causation
• Foreseeability

Zahran’s independent radicalization fails all three.

Retrospective criminal attribution is impossible.

 

If:
RAW → trained LTTE → LTTE killed Rajiv Gandhi
→ NO RAW OFFICERS PROSECUTED

 

Then:
Sri Lankan intel → engaged Zahran → Easter attacks occur
→ WHY IS SURESH SALLAY ACCUSED?

 

This double standard exposes political persecution — not justice.

 

Common Thread: Revenge & Political Targeting

• Suresh Sallay played a key role in dismantling LTTE networks — a majorobstacle to separatist agendas.
• The same groups that supported LTTE terror nowpush new extremist agendas.
• They view Suresh Sallay as acommon enemy.
• Campaigning for Legal action against him isrevenge, not justice.

 

The Intelligence Reality

 

Intelligence agencies:

• Penetrate radical networks
• Recruit extremists
• Use criminals
• Run double agents
• Engage unstable actors

Sri Lanka’s national security laws, emergency regulations, and military doctrine recognize engagement with hostile actors as an essential defense function protected under national security immunity.

 

Civil courts are not equipped to adjudicate such cases:

• Magistrates rely on police evidence and the law book
• Sensitive operational context is inaccessible
• Public trials risk exposing methods, sources, and secrets to enemies

 

If civil courts criminalize intelligence operations:

• Terror networks gain freedom
• Early-warning systems collapse
• Penetration of extremist cells becomes impossible
• Counter-terror effectiveness is destroyed
• National security becomes hostage to political vendettas

 

This is not justice. This is self-sabotage.

 

The Strategic Danger

 

The campaign against Suresh Sallay is part of a larger ideological vendetta:

• The same networks that defended, justified, and enabled LTTE terror seek revenge
• Revenge is coupled with manipulating law, propaganda, and politics to dismantle Sri Lanka’s intelligence shield while they woo other extremist groups.
• Weakening the intelligence systemexposes the nation to future terror attacks – Easter Sunday was a test-run that exposed the weaknesses and uncoordianation of the heads of Sri Lanka’s security apparatus.

 

If RAW officers who created the LTTE were not imprisoned, and global intelligence agencies are never prosecuted for operational contact, then on what legal, moral, or strategic basis is Sri Lanka targeting Suresh Sallay?

 

 

 

 

Shenali D Waduge