Praba’s mother shifted to Jaffna

Parvathi Ammal, the paralysed mother of slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, was taken from a Colombohotel to her hometown of Valvettithurai in Jaffna in an ambulance on Wednesday, former minister P Radhakrishnan said.

Radhakrishnan, who met the bed-ridden octogenarian on Tuesday, told Express that she could hear what he spoke, but could not speak. “She tried hard, but words did not come out of her mouth,” he added.

Parvathi Ammal had arrived in Colombofrom Kuala Lumpur on May 10 after failing to get an extension of her one-month Malaysian visa and approval to enter Canada to stay with her daughter Vinothini Rajendran. The Indian government’s decision to grant her a conditional visa has not been communicated to her. At any rate, her relatives said, the conditions were too stringent.

“Returning to her home in Sri Lanka was the last option and she had to use it, “ said former Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP M K Sivajilingam, who accompanied her to Valvettithurai.

“The people of Valvettithurai will look after her. The place is teeming with her relatives, but they are staying away out of fear,” Sivajilingam said.

Parvathi Ammal was partially paralysed in 2000, and for sometime now, has been completely bed-ridden. Her husband Thiruvengadam Velupillai died in the Lankan military’s custody in Panagoda on January 6, and her son Prabhakaran, his wife Mathivathani and their three children - two boys and a girl - died in Mulliwaikkal in May 2009.

^expressbuzz