The Ministry of Defence has vehemently denied a statement made by an Indian politician claiming that banned terror group LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is in fact alive and that he is expected to make a public appearance soon.

Media Director of the Ministry of Defence Colonel Nalin Herath dismissed the relevant statement as “ridiculous”.

In wake of fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government declared the LTTE leader Prabhakaran was dead, former politician in Tamil Nadu Pazha Nedumaran yesterday (Feb. 13) claimed that he is alive and healthy, and he will soon make a public appearance.

Nedumaran, the president of the World Confederation of Tamils made this statement while speaking to the media in Thanjavur, India.

“LTTE leader Prabhakaran is alive and will appear soon. We are happy to announce this to the world. He will announce his plans for Tamil Eelam”, he said.

Explaining the timing of this announcement, he said, “The fall of the Rajapaksa government after the Sinhala uprising in Sri Lanka has created a conducive situation. This is the right time for Prabhakaran’s appearance.”

However, Nedumaran has made claims of Prabhakaran being alive earlier too. In 2018, he had told The Indian Express, an Indian news agency, that he has reliable information that Prabhakaran is still alive.

“He was never captured… he fled”,  Nedumaran had said.

Following the Sri Lankan government’s announcement of Prabhakaran’s death in 2009, several photographs and videos of his body were widely shared. Many had then claimed these were doctored. Others had alleged that the LTTE leader was shot dead in violation of international conventions when he came to surrender under a pact.

Prabhakaran was 54 at the time.

However, Pazha Nedumaran has not shared any details regarding the LTTE leader’s present location.

Nevertheless, the Media Director of the Ministry of Defence in Sri Lanka emphasized that the relevant statement is devoid of truth, highlighting it was confirmed through DNA testing that Prabhakaran was dead.

Furthermore, he mentioned that Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias ‘Karuna Amman’ and also Daya Master, who were former members of the LTTE organization, confirmed that the LTTE leader Prabhakaran is dead, after observing his body.

Prabhakaran was a prime accused in the assassination of India’s former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a suicide bombing at Sriperumbudur, India in 1991 after which he was declared a proclaimed offender. He was also charged in some other assassination cases in the country, and LTTE was declared a banned terror organisation.

What began as a liberation movement with few other groups opposing decades of discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka, LTTE leader Prabhakaran had later switched to armed struggle, known for its guerrilla warfare and suicide attacks. The LTTE became the first terror group to have an air force.
 
 

-With agencies’ inputs