Our only regrets are for the lives lost and that we could not hold out for longer" by Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers' chief of international relations, brought an end to the armed conflict. Prabhakaran's reported death and the announcement "We have decided to silence our guns. His 12-year-old second son was executed a short time later. His son Charles Anthony was also killed in fighting with the Sri Lankan Army, and his wife's and daughter's bodies were reportedly found by the Sri Lankan army the Sri Lankan government later denied the report. Prabhakaran, who had said, “I would prefer to die in honour rather than being caught alive by the enemy”, was killed in fighting with the Sri Lankan Army in May 2009. Peace talks eventually broke down, and the Sri Lanka Army launched a military campaign to defeat the LTTE in 2006. By then, the LTTE, which came to be known as the Tamil Tigers, controlled large swathes of land in the north and east of the country, running a de facto state with Prabhakaran as its leader. After years of fighting, including the intervention of the Indian Army ( IPKF), the conflict was halted after international mediation in 2001. This ambush, along with the subsequent pogrom that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Tamil civilians, is generally considered the start of the Sri Lankan Civil War. įounded in 1976, the LTTE rocketed to prominence in 1983 after it ambushed a patrol of the Sri Lanka Army outside Jaffna, resulting in the deaths of 13 soldiers. Considered the heart of Tamil culture and literature in Sri Lanka, Jaffna was concentrated with growing Tamil nationalism, which called for autonomy for Tamils to protest the discrimination against them by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government and Sinhalese civilians since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948. Prabhakaran was the youngest of four children, born in Valvettithurai, on Sri Lanka's Jaffna peninsula's northern coast.
The LTTE waged war in Sri Lanka for more than 25 years, to create an independent state for the Sri Lankan Tamil people. Another war will break out," he warned.įollowing the Easter Sunday terror attacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels by a local Islamist outfit with possible links to the Islamic State terror group, there were widespread attacks on the Muslim community.Velupillai Prabhakaran ( listen (US English) Tamil: வேலுப்பிள்ளை பிரபாகரன் Tamil pronunciation:, 26 November 1954 – 18 May 2009) was a Sri Lankan Tamil guerrilla and the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. "If we divide and fall apart the whole country will stand to lose. The civil war in Sri Lanka that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people ended with the killing of Prabhakaran by Sri Lankan army in 2009. Velupillai Prabhakaran was the founder and leader of the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, a militant organisation that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The President urged the public "not to leave room for a Muslim Prabhakaran to be born," Colombo Gazette reported. Warning against the emergence of a "Muslim Prabhakaran", Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has called for unity among all communities in the country which saw the worst terror attack on Easter Sunday.Īcknowledging that the country has now been divided, Sirisena, who spoke in Mullaitivu, a former bastion of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said on Saturday that religious leaders and politicians in the country were divided today. Sri Lankan President warns against emergence of a 'Muslim Prabhakaran'