COLOMBO: LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran made two last-minute attempts to escape to India or Malaysia, but these came too late as the Sri Lankan navy had put up a effective naval blockade by then. Media reports said on Wednesday that PrabhakaranÂ’s family has been found shot dead.
These failures left no option for Prabhakaran, who had earlier hoodwinked and outmaneuvered the Sri Lankan security apparatus, to stay put in the northern war zone and fight to the last. Prabhakaran made these attempts as Sri Lankan forces made major advances into the rebel-held territory this year, naval spokesman D K Dasanayake said.
Reports said that PrabhakaranÂ’s wife Mathivathani, daughter and younger son Balachandran were found shot dead on Wednesday.
Their bodies, having gunshot wounds in the head, were found a day after pictures of PrabhakaranÂ’s body were released by the Sri Lankan authorities. The bodies were found in the Nandi Kadal lagoon area barely 600 metres from where the LTTE supremoÂ’s body was recovered by the army. Balachandran was barely 13. PrabhakaranÂ’s wife and daughter were not in Europe as believed but right there with the Tamil Tiger chief.
Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the Eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, have “positively identified” the LTTE supremo’s body.
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