July 21, Colombo: The leader of the breakaway rebel faction Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman has declared that he is not planning to disarm his fighters.

“If we disarm now, it will be dangerous for us. We want to carry arms for self-protection,” Karuna told a news agency a day after the Sri Lankan government celebrated the liberation of the East from Tamil Tigers.

Giving reasons not to disarming his cadres, Karuna said that LTTE intelligence personnel were still operating in the east of the island, even though it had been taken by government forces.

“The killing of the top bureaucrat in the eastern province earlier this week was proof of this,” he said.

Karuna’s split from the main LTTE group in 2004 seriously weakened the Tigers.