Tigers give up, buzz that Prabhakaran body at hand

As Tamil Tiger rebels, ending their 25-year-old war with the Sri Lankan government, admitted defeat and offered to lay down their guns, military sources said a body believed to be that o Tamil Tiger founder leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been found but the identity of the corpse has not been confirmed.

“They are taking the body for checks to con firm it is the real Prabhakaran,”one military official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.Four other military sources confirmed the recover and said identity checks were under way.

A senior military official said troops found the bodies of several rebel fighters who had commit ted suicide Sunday when troops surrounded them.

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India, Pakistan rivals but they trained, helped us fight Tigers: Lanka Army

Behind the success of the Sri Lankan army’s operations against the Tamil Tigers — troops searching for LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran breached two rebel defence fortifications in the no-fire zone — is an interesting little detail of Indo-Pak cooperation against terror. Separately but consistently, the two countries have trained and equipped the Lankan army to prepare and fight its only enemy, the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan army says the reason for its success is that “we didn’t reduce the momentum”, planned the entire operation in advance and employed innovative counter-insurgency tactics to confront the Tigers.

“I got training in both India and Pakistan. Both have been helping us a lot,” said Brigadier Udaya Nanayakara, now the military spokesman. “We send our officers regularly to India and Pakistan for specialised training. I did four courses in India and three in Pakistan. The last time, I trained in Secunderabad.

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As Lanka closes in on Tigers, boat with refugees lands in Tamil Nadu

As Sri Lankan troops advanced on the last redoubt of the Tamil Tigers and the exodus of people trapped in a coastal strip crossed 62,000, a boatload of starving Tamil refugees landed on the Tamil Nadu coast this morning. Refugees claimed that over 80 boats carrying civilians were headed for the Indian mainland but officials said intelligence inputs pointed to only four boats making the journey.

Nineteen refugees, including eight women and two children, reached Arcothurai near Point Calimere in Nagapattinam this morning after sailing for nearly 24 hours in a small fishing boat. Police officials said the refugees had no food or water. They were taken to the Mandapam camp in Rameshwaram where a large number of Lankan Tamil refugees are housed.

“Now that the battlefield has shifted to north-east Lanka, people in former LTTE-controlled areas like Mullaithivu and Puthukkudiyiruppu are trying to flee the war by escaping to the Indian mainland,” an official said. As a result, Nagapattinam

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Tigers cornered in Lanka, Tamil Nadu parties make it a poll issue

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which account for 40 seats in the Lok Sabha, will vote only in the last phase of the elections on May 13 but as news of the imminent fall of LTTE trickles in from across the Palk Strait, not many in the fray are willing to take a chance. Almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu have announced protests for the sake of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, the more virulent ones like MDMK’s Vaiko even warning of a “bloodbath” if LTTE chief V Prabhakaran is harmed.

The ruling DMK, while declaring thatit will not go back on its alliance with the Congress over the issue, is organising a protest rally tomorrow, demanding immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has sent a telegram to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — it is also addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram — urging the Centre to intervene and “save theTamil race” from annihilation. Karunanidhi will himself lead the “Tamil’s rally” in Chennai and “all like minded parties” are expected to participate.

The DMK move seems to have been prompted by protests by the MDMK and PMK, among the most active parties campaigning on the issue.

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