Colombo: The new chief of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Selvarasa Pathmanathan, has been arrested in Thailand and brought to Colombo for questioning.
Highly placed sources say he was picked up and flown to the capital, but there are no details of the circumstances under which he was taken into custody.
Last week, KP, as he's called, claimed that LTTE's decision to give up its armed struggle and take recourse to "political and diplomatic moves" was taken by Prabhakaran before his death.
Earlier, warning that the LTTE was trying to regroup under a new leader, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said on Thursday that any plot to create law and order problems in the country will be dealt with firmly.
Without naming LTTE's new leader Selvarasa Pathmanathan directly, Wickremanayake told Parliament that "another person was trying to mobilise the LTTE cadres to regroup" and that it would be dealt firmly.
Vowing to pursue its campaign for "Tamil Eelam", the LTTE in July named alleged arms smuggler Pathmanathan as its new leader to succeed the slain tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran who was killed in May.
The announcement came amid reports that differences have cropped up among the few remaining LTTE leaders who are based abroad. It was also not clear whether the huge Tamil diaspora would back 54-year-old Pathmanathan.