Prabhakaran, Founder of LTTE

Velupillai Prabhakaran was born on November 26, 1954 and died on May 19, 2009. He was the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers). LTTE was a militant organization that wanted to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. LTTE waged a violent secessionist campaign in Sri Lanka for over 25 years and was designated a terrorist organization by 32 countries. Prabhakaran was wanted by the Interpol, Sri Lanka & India for terrorism & organized crime.

Early life of Velupillai Prabhakaran

Prabhakaran was the son of a District Government Officer. He founded the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) in 1972 for protesting against the Sri Lankan govt for discrimination against Tamil people, and favoring the majority Sinhalese people.

In 1975, he shot the mayor of Jaffna, at point-blank range when he was entering the temple. On May 5, 1976, the TNT was renamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a.k.a Tamil Tigers. The LTTE focused on the attainment of an independent Tamil Eelam.

Press conference at Killinochchi

On April 10 2002, in Killinochchi, Prabhakaran held his first and only major press conference attended by 200 local & foreign journalists. The questions regarding LTTE’s commitment towards peace process were jointly answered by Prabhakaran and Dr. Anton Balasingham. Regarding their involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assasination they called it a tragic incident. Prabhakaran stated that he had instructed the LTTE cadres to kill him if he compromised on the LTTE goal of independent state.

Militarism of the LTTE

Prabhakaran chose armed struggle & made use of suicide bomber units, his fighters usually took no prisoners & left every single enemy soldier dead.

Criminal Indictments of Prabhakaran

Velupillai Prabhakaran was wanted by Interpol and many other organizations since 1991. A death warrant was issued in May, 1991 by the Madras High Court in India for plotting the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. In 2002, an open warrant was issued to arrest him for involvement in 1996 Central Bank Bombing. He was found guilty & sentenced to 200 years in prison.

Personal life

Prabhakaran was married & had a daughter (Duvaraga) and two sons, Charles Anthony & Balachandran. Their whereabouts were unknown. It is thought that the entire family has been wiped out; their bodies were found nearby Prabhakaran’s body. Charles Anthony was killed in May 2009, in the final stage of the Army offensive.

Death

Prabhakaran and his top brass rebels retreated into their stronghold Mullaithivu when the Sri Lankan military advanced into LTTE territory. The Sri Lankan army found his body in a lagoon on May 17. The corpse was dressed in Prabhakaran’s uniform and had a large bullet wound in its forehead, Early reports indicated Prabakaran was in a captured ambulance trying to flee the conflict zone. He was killed by rocket attack and his body was badly burned.

On May 18, 2009, the Sri Lankan Government announced that Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to escape advancing Sri Lanka Army troops. A week later Tamil Tiger spokesman admitted that Prabhakaran had died.