COLOMBO, Sept 20: In a bid to prevent the Tamil Tiger rebels infiltrating Colombo in the guise of civilians and carrying out terror attacks, the Sri Lankan government has ordered a police census in the Western Province for all Tamils from the north so that they could be registered for identification purposes.

This regulation will not apply to people from outside the Northern Province, officials said in a briefing for media on Saturday. The move comes as the last two northern LTTE bases of Killinochchi and Mullativu are under heavy assault by government troops. Several key guerilla targets, including a safe-house of LTTE leader Prabhakaran, have been destroyed in the heavy fighting since last Monday.

A time bomb was placed last Wednesday in a public bus in Colombo, but it exploded only after all passengers had left the vehicle.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told a Colombo-based newspaper, Daily Mirror, on Friday that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) might be using the migration of Tamils from the north to camouflage its infiltration into Colombo and the Western Province.

“There are so many people coming from the north and east and settling down in the Western Province. If it’s voluntary that’s fine. But I am not sure that it is not an organised move. It is important to check if the LTTE is organising it,” Rajapaksa said.

“They (those who came from the north and east) have no means of income, but they are paying huge sums and settling down. Where is the money coming from?” he wondered.