Colombo, June 25: The gunman, who killed a senior intelligence officer near the Sri Lankan capital Monday, had been arrested by police last year for his suspicious behaviour along the route taken by Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf during his visit to the island, officials said today. Police said the suspect, identified as a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was arrested on the day Musharraf visited the island in July after intelligence sleuths became suspicious of the his behaviour along the main drive from the international airport to the capital. They said at the time it was inspector Sunil Thabrew who intervened to have him freed. Thabrew was gunned down on Monday while he slept in police barracks near here by the same man he freed in July last year, police said. The suspect had acted as a "police informer" but it turned out that he had infiltrated the police network. It was not immediately clear why the suspect had been spying along Musharraf`s route.

Bureau Report