On Monday, 13 February, Tamil nationalist movement leader Pazha Nedumaran claimed that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo Velupillai Prabakaran was still alive and would emerge in public soon.
Why is this significant? Sri Lankan defence forces had claimed to have slain Prabhakaran in May 2009. Photographs and videos of the slain leader were also released at the time.
Sri Lanka rebuffs: Soon after Nedumaran's press conference Sri Lanka's defence ministry dismissed it as a "joke."
"It is confirmed that he was killed on 19 May 2009. The DNA has proved it," Colonel Nalin Herath, Sri Lanka's defence ministry spokesperson, told PTI.
Nedumaran's had also referred to recent political developments in Sri Lanka. Stating that this announcement should put an end to the ‘rumours’ about Prabhakaran's death, Nedumaran 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 his (Prabhakaran's) appearance."Pazha Nedumaran, President of the World Tamils Confederation
What we know about Prabhakaran: Prabhakaran had founded LTTE and this outfit was declared a banned terror organisation in Sri Lanka. Prabhakaran led a separatist war for the island nation’s Tamil minority as the head of LTTE.
He was believed to have been the mastermind behind the assassination of India's former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Gandhi was killled in a suicide bomb blast at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu in 1991.
Why has Nedumaran’s claim upset many?
Prabhakaran, who is often called "the Tamil Tiger" by his supporters, had led an extensive guerrilla campaign for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.
He was declared killed by Sri Lankan troops on 18 May 2009, in Mullaivaikkal, in the northern Mullaithivu district of Sri Lanka. Hence, Nedumaran’s claim that Prabhakaran is alive and healthy 14 years after he was officially declared dead has raised eyebrows in the Tamil political space. However, when reporters asked him to produce proof for his claim, Nedumaran declined to answer.
Nedumaran, meanwhile, urged the Tamil Nadu government, all political parties in Tamil Nadu, and the people of Tamil Nadu to express their support for LTTE leader Prabhakaran at this "crucial juncture."
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