V Prabhakaran

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was formed in 1975 with the motto of achieving separate Tamil Eelam state, consisting Tamil-dominated north and east of Sri Lanka.

It’s leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was inspired by Chola King, which ruled South India between 9th-13th century, because they fought with Sinhalese rulers. He borrowed the Chola King’s symbol i.e. tiger for his rebel outfit.

Interpol charged him with crimes against life and health, organised crime, terrorism and terrorism conspiracy. He has arrest warrant against him in Sri Lanka and India.

‘Very alert’ and ‘stout build’, as per Interpol, Prabhakaran had lived as a military dictator and wanted to achieve his goal of ‘Tamil Ealam’ by using military power.

“I wanted to achieve something through action rather than waste time in idle fancies,” Prabhakaran was quoted as saying in his biography, Inside an Elusive Mind.

Born on November 26, 1954 to a middle-class Tamil family in Jaffna, he took arms in his teen age against the official security forces to take revenge of exploitation done to Tamilians in the Jaffna.

His first victim was mayor of Jaffna. It was first assassination carried out by LTTE. Since than, Tamil Tigers were involved in assassination of many leaders of Sri Lanka, including President Ranasinghe Premadasa (1993) and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar(2005) and former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi(1991).

He had made LTTE a conventional military force having all three wings. He had enforced a strict code of discipline among his cadres, banning smoking and drinking.

He had directed his cadres to commit suicide rather getting into hands of security forces. Therefore, all rebel guerrillas carry cyanide capsule with them.

His used of ‘suicide bombers’, especially those of ‘bra bombers’ and ‘child soldiers’, put him among the world’s most ruthless guerrilla leaders.

From News Store: 19 May, 2009