'Prabakaran was hoping for an NDA or a Third Front win'

by lalith | June 14, 2009 at 10:04 am

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'Prabakaran was hoping for an NDA or a Third Front win'
New Delhi (PTI): Velupillai Prabakaran was waiting for the results of Indian elections to plan his next strategy in the 30-year-old civil war in Sri Lanka and was apparently hoping that either the NDA or the Third Front would come to power in New Delhi, but the Army there had different plans.

It has now emerged that the 54-year-old slain guerrilla leader was waiting till May 16, the day results of Lok Sabha elections were known, to decide on his and the outfit's future, but it was too late as the Sri Lankan Army had by then cut off all the escape routes.

"Till May 16, he (Prabakaran) was hoping that someone will interfere and stop the Army from entering the final 'No Fire Zone' where he was held up," Sri Lankan Army sources said.

On May 16 afternoon, the LTTE announced that it would allow all civilians trapped in the area held by them to leave to safety, apparently after knowing that the Congress, which it believed was hostile to him and the outfit, was set to return to power.

Sources in the Tamil political circles in Sri Lanka said the LTTE was hoping that there would be a popular upsurge for it in Tamil Nadu, where the general elections were fought on the Eelam plank, and that the Third Front or the NDA could come to power.

"This (election results) might have upset Prabhakaran and other leaders of the outfit, but they did not have time to think or plan anything. They were boxed by the Army by that time," the sources said.

The LTTE chief would have thought that the Third Front and the NDA would not be so hostile as the Congress was, they said, adding that once the people started leaving the war zone, Sri Lankan Army swiftly rescued the civilians and took them to safe zones.

Prabhakaran, labeled as the most ruthless terrorist in the world knew he was fighting a losing battle over five weeks before he was killed. Using his satellite phone to the maximum, he spoke to the organizers in foreign countries to do something to to halt the Army's advance and work towards a ceasefire.

Many foreign politicians tried to negotiate a ceasefire while politicians such as Jayalalitha of Tamil Nadu resorted to threatening Sri Lanka with military action. Vaiko talked of blood baths. This was only considered to be 'Gas Balls'. Nothing happened.

If Prabhakaran had known that he on the verge of being let down by the diaspora and his representatives abroad, he would have vanished into some foreign land and still continued his terror tactics. Protests by the diaspora in many foreign countries only gave the protesters sore throats and Prabhakaran's death wit a splitting head ache.

On May 16 afternoon, LTTE's International Relations head Selvarasa Pathmanathan issued a statement in which the outfit virtually accepted defeat and asked the "global community to save the people of Wanni."

They said Prabakaran did not expect that the Sri Lankan forces would encircle him and his aides "so soon".

The Army also got a tip off from the LTTE Sea Tigers chief Soosai's wife, who was taken into custody while trying to flee the island, that Prabakaran and the top brass were still inside the war zone.

"This emboldened the Army which went all out against the Tigers and virtually encircled them in a 2 sq. km area in the Wanni region on May 16. That gave no chance for any of the Tiger leaders to escape," the sources said.