Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have allegedly sold 1.3 lakh stolen Norwegian passports to various buyers, including the al Qaeda terror organisation.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had allegedly stolen the passports with the help of a corrupt policeman in Norway, Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Washington, Bernard Goonetilleke, was quoted as saying by The Nation daily.
The passports were then sold to anyone offering the highest price, he claimed.
The recent arrest in Thailand of a suspect with 700 passports revealed that one of the buyers had been the al Qaeda group in Algeria, the ambassador said in a radio interview in Washington.
The Norwegian authorities have already rejected the allegations that their passports were stolen by the LTTE when the reports first surfaced earlier this year and given wide publicity in the pro-government media here.
Mr Goonetilleke also accused the LTTE of using sophisticated methods to extort money from some 8 lakh Sri Lankan Tamils living in the US, Australia and Europe.
