The Maldives coast guard yesterday sank a boat suspected of ferrying arms for separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in neighboring Sri Lanka and captured five men, a government spokesman said.
Maldivian fishermen spotted the boat on Wednesday evening and gave chase after believing it was a fishing boat poaching in their waters, Maldives government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said.
When the boat's crew opened fire on the fishermen, they informed the Maldivian coast guard, which later sank it after a 10-hour stand off, Shareef said.
One of the men captured later said the boat had weapons and ammunition aboard, Shareef said, adding the five were being interrogated.
Maldives, an archipelago of 1,200 coral islands, is located 400 nautical miles (740km) southwest of Sri Lanka.
Tamil Tiger spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan denied the rebels' involvement.
"We have nothing to do with this and they are not our people," he said by telephone.
In 1988 a former Tamil separatist group based in Sri Lanka, the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, attempted to overthrow President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and seize power in the Maldives for a group of local dissidents. In return, the group was to receive a base on the archipelago.
However, Maldives security forces, with help from India, defeated the coup.
The Tamil group later gave up arms and entered mainstream Sri Lankan politics.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels have continued to fight for more than two decades to create a separate homeland for the country's 3.1 million ethnic minority Tamils.
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