The early 1980s saw a huge influx of refugees from northern Sri Lanka into Tamil Nadu. Tamil militants, too, made clandestine trips following the crackdown by the Sri Lankan Army. The militant groups were known for their internecine rivalries. The first sign of the fallout was the shoot-out between Prabhakaran, chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Uma Maheswaran, alias Mukundan, leader of People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in Madras in May 1982.
The incident shocked the local population that had not seen such an incident in public. It also highlighted the fact that the militant groups had chosen Tamil Nadu not only as a sanctuary from where they could continue their struggle against the Sri Lankan government but also as an arena to settle scores among themselves, recalled K. Mohandas, former Director-General of Police (Intelligence), in his affidavit before the Jain Commission, which probed the conspiracy aspect in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
