Pak as Mata Hari? - http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com

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http://worldmonitor.wordpress.com/ Pak plays Mata Hari March 21, Daily Pioneer Strange are the ways of arms suppliers! The Pakistan Ordnance Factory, which has been supplying arms to Sri Lankan armed forces, is also augmenting supplies to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "The LTTE negotiated with the arms brokers and paid twice the amount quoted by the Sri Lankan Army to have the consignment delivered to them instead," say senior intelligence officials. Ironically, the LTTE came to know about the Pakistani arms broker when it intercepted a Pakistani consignment of arms meant for Sri Lankan Army. The consignment, ordered by the Sri Lankan Army, fell into the hands of LTTE before reaching Colombo port on January 22 this year. "The documents

of the consignment revealed that the arms negotiator was a retired Pakistani official. On being contacted by LTTE intermediaries, he agreed to deal with them also but at double the price negotiated by the Sri Lankan Army," the intelligence sources said. The Tigers have in the recent past suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Sri Lankan forces, ostensibly due to the Pakistani military supplies and its pilots guiding the attacks against the ultras. The unusual source of military supplies to the LTTE, including grenades, mortars, anti-aircraft and tank ammunition, is likely to enhance the lethality and firepower of the 'besieged' militant outfit, intelligence sources said.

The development may not be such a strange thing, after all. The Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, had trained both the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE simultaneously in adjacent locations in the northern city of Haifa, without each other's knowledge, in the early nineties. Many defence suppliers are known to be giving arms to both sides of conflicts, rebels as well as the Government forces fighting them, the sources elaborated. This is not the first time that the LTTE managed to divert the Pakistani arms shipments for Sri Lankan Army. About a year-and-a-half ago, the LTTE, posing themselves as the Sri Lankan Army representatives, boarded the ship carrying Pakistani arms and got them delivered at their own location. Now, not only are the four Sri Lankan Army officials who negotiated the initial consignment are under a cloud but also officials of the Pakistan Ordnance Factory and Pakistani officers involved in the deal. The latest incident comes six months after the Sri Lankan Army refused to accept a $50 million consignment consisting of tanks, tank shells and anti-aircraft ammunition due to sub-standard quality, Government sources said. The Pakistan Ordnance Factory has reportedly been supplying arms and ammunition to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Taliban in Afghanistan and other conflict zones of South East Asia, where Pakistani army officials act

as middlemen for clinching such deals. The Pakistan Ordnance Factory had recently supplied 100 tonnes of arms and ammunition to the insurgent groups like the ULFA and KLO in Chittagong as reported earlier by The Pioneer.http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=front%5Fpage & file_name=story1%2Etxt & counter_img=1

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