The Q branch of the Tamil Nadu police dealing with extremists has arrested a member of the LTTE's intelligence wing in Chennai along with seven other Sri Lankan Tamils.

 A press release from the Q branch said they were arrested on Wednesday night and iron-ball rings and plastics used in making explosives were seized from them.

 The release said the group was procuring supplies for the LTTE and gathering information on movements of anti-LTTE leader Varadaraja Perumal and Sri Lankan Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda.

 Mr Perumal heads a breakaway faction of the EPRLF and Mr Devananda leads the EPDP. Mr Devananda has survived several attempts by the LTTE to kill him, the latest being in Colombo when a woman visitor to his office blew herself up. The two visit India often.  

 The LTTE operative Thambidurai Parameswaran had arrived in Rameswaram in clandestine manner in February 2007 and was masquerading as a taxi driver, procuring iron ball rings, plastic, two-wheelers and boats, the press release said. He had engaged the seven Sri Lankan Tamils who attempted to procure these articles from Puducherry and Rameswaram to be smuggled to Sri Lanka by boat from Rameswaram, it said.

 The eight arrested were produced before a magistrate on Thursday who remanded them to judicial custody.