Colombo: Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister DM Jayaratne has retracted his claim that the Tamil Tiger rebels were being trained in camps in India.
He said that his allegation was based on incorrect information, the BBC reports.
Jayaratne's speech to Parliament drew a strong response from the Indian government as he said that an unknown number of fighters based at three clandestine training centres were operated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Tamil Nadu.
He said his government had intelligence reports, which stated that one of the camps was giving training in how to assassinate VIPs.
He said: "Their next target is to create small-scale attacks. The entire nation must be ready to face this threat."
However, India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesman rebuffed Jayaratne's remarks, and said that Delhi "categorically" denied the existence of such camps and adding that the Colombo government had not raised such an issue diplomatically.
He said: "Such a reference is indeed unfortunate and we urge the government of Sri Lanka to desist from reacting to speculative and uncorroborated reports."
Jayaratne has now said that accounts of the supposed camps were "mentioned in two newspaper reports".
He said: "There appears to be false information in these reports".
ANI
First Published: Sunday, March 13, 2011, 13:56