Colombo: Having vanquished the LTTE, the Sri Lankan Army has launched a massive search to recover their weapons, especially claymore mines and other destructive explosives, in the northern areas to facilitate the early resettlement of displaced Tamils in their towns and villages.
"The army fears that LTTE has buried stockpiles of explosives and weapons in the thick jungles of Wanni," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told visiting Indian journalists in Colombo.
After having accounted for most of the top LTTE leadership in the just-concluded long military campaign, he said the military was now focused on tracing the whereabouts of the large number of "sleeper cells" of the Tigers.
He said there are no signs of the presence of LTTE cadres in the northern areas liberated from the outfit last month.
"We are recovering claymore mines, hand grenades and other ammunition which are either hidden or abandoned by the Tamil Tigers. We still suspect that there are huge quantities of weapons in the areas. We are searching the places thoroughly," he said.
The spokesman said the displaced civilians cannot be resettled until the areas are completely demined and cleared off the weapons.
Nanayakkara said the army believes that "second and third-rung" leaders of LTTE were present in different parts of the country, including capital Colombo.