The hunt for Prabhakaran: crouching Tiger or hidden dragon?

The rise of Prabhakaran

In 1972,at the age of 18,Velupillai Prabhakaran founded the Tamil New Tigers (TNT),a successor to many initial organisations that protested against the post-colonial political direction of the country that pitted the minority Sri Lankan Tamils against the majority Sinhalese population. In 1975,after becoming involved in the Tamil movement,he carried out his first assassination when he shot the Mayor of Jaffna,Alfred Duraiappah while he was about to enter a temple in Punnelary. The murder was in response to the 1974 Tamil conference incident for which Tamil radicals blamed Duraiappah as he backed the then Sri Lanka Freedom Party,implicated in the violence.

Emergence of LTTE

On May 5,1976,the TNT was renamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The first “Eelam war” was launched in 1983 with 13 soldiers being killed in an LTTE ambush and subsequent anti-Tamil riots. The signing of the Rajiv-Jayawardene accord and the subsequent failure of the IPKF experiment led to the second “Eelam war” in 1990 and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

Terror tag

Prabhakaran has been wanted by the Interpol and other organisations since 1991 for “terrorism”,“murder” and “organised crime”. He has been issued a death warrant by the Madras High Court for plotting the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991. In 2002 a Sri Lankan court issued an open warrant for his arrest in the 1996 Central Bank bombing. He was found guilty on 51 counts and sentenced to 200 years in prison. The LTTE is now branded a terrorist organisation by the USA,EU and many Asian countries.

The elusive Tiger

The Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) was unsuccessful in capturing Prabhakaran. Sri Lankan military officials believe he is currently hiding in a fortified bunker in thick jungle. He is protected by several rings of security,including an inner circle manned by fiBlack Tigers,members of the group’s suicide squad. Officials believe he can try to escape with the help of LTTE’s naval wing,Sea Tigers,through the sea route to reach the Indonesian islands. The Sri Lankan forces narrowly missed striking him in 2008 when the Air Force scored a direct hit over a bunker called X-Ray in Iranamadu which he was known to frequent. They did succeed in killing two of LTTE’s top-rung leaders — Tamil Selvam,the political head,and Shanmuganathan Ravishankar alias Charles,the military intelligence chief — in surprise strikes. When Prabhakaran didn’t make an appearance at Charles’s funeral,they suspected he was injured. Subsequently,intelligence agencies believe that he is alive and in full command of his forces.While some believe Prabhakaran can’t afford to leave the island because the leadership needed for the struggle cannot be provided from abroad,LTTE sympathisers around the world hope the Tiger has not exhausted his choices for hideouts yet.

(Compiled by Pallavi Singh)