Press Trust of India / Colombo May 19, 2009, 18:22 IST
Sri Lankan army today recovered the body of slain Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and splashed its images on the national television after LTTE claimed that he was alive and that the group would continue to fight for a separate homeland.
"Prabhakaran's body was found near Nandikadal lagoon (in the No Fire Zone)," Army Chief Gen Sarath Fonseka said in a televised address just an hour after LTTE raised questions over his death with its new international spokesman S Pathmanathan saying Prabhakaran was alive and safe.
The images of the body aired by the television showed Prabhakaran in full battle fatigues with the bullet hole on the temple with his head resting on a newspaper. Prabhakaran's face was intact with eyes wide open and the image bore a close resemblance to the stocky mustached rebel leader. The TV also showed his dog tag and an LTTE identity card bearing his number 0-01.
The images were shown on television as Pathmanathan came out with a statement. "Our beloved leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people." The statement was carried by the pro-LTTE website TamilNet.Com.
The new face of the LTTE, who according to sources, is based in some South-East Asian country went on to accuse the Sri Lankan forces of "crimes against humanity", saying the outfit's civil leaders B Nadesan and S Pulideevan were killed in "cold blood" when they had come to the Army's 58th division with white flags to negotiate an end to conflict.
The LTTE claims created ripples within the Lankan Government and the Army Chief went on television to state categorically "reports from the battlefield confirmed this morning that they have identified the body of Prabhakaran, this ruthless terrorist leader".
"The fighting was yesterday. He was killed yesterday and the body was identified today," he said. Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said, "We will give the body to an undertaker. We cannot just throw the body in the jungle. We are civilised country."
Coflicting accounts of the Tiger leader's fate came a day after Sri Lankan forces wiped out the entire top LTTE leadership to claim to have ended one of the world's bitterly fought ethnic wars.
what a relief to all peace loving patriots of sri lanka...
we muslims are extremely happy for pirabaharns death for we know ltte did a systematically ethnic cleansing of more than 60,000 muslims who lived in north and others are displaced,lost their businesses .. LTTE did genocide their own tamils,and then sinhalese and muslims .. we will never forgive ruthless velupillei pirabaharan..
Posted by: Abi
May 25 , 2009, 01:15 IST
You people are happy? .. yea thatz only if you were in the tamils shoes, you would understand, how tamils were handling the pain seeing their own family and friends dieing, how do you know that how tamils are the ones killing the people? The SLA army force has the most weapons why not blame they why are you blaming the tamils . HAVE A HEART ALRITE . Velupilla Prabhakaran is OUR TAMIL LEADER. AND HE IS STILL ALIVE . Get that through your HEAD !
The whole civilised world will breath a sigh of immense relief and thank the brave Shri Lankan President and the armed forces for tackling the most dangerous and a ruthless outfit. Let Shri Lankha be an example to countries plagued with terrorism. India please take note. Watch Tamil Nadu.
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