by G Saravanan
A statement purportedly originating from the defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has rubbished jailed ex-LTTE leader K Padmanathan’s recent claim that the Tamil Tigers had once planned to assassinate Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
“KP’s claim in a television interview that LTTE had once planned to assassinate Jayalalithaa was far from the truth and we perceive the act as a ploy to create fissures among Tamils,” the statement said on Friday.
According to the fourpage statement signed by A Anbarasan, said to be from the LTTE’s media wing, and published in their official online mouthpiece www.viduthalaipulikal.net, Sri Lankan Sinhalese government, which has been under tremendous international pressure after the release of the UN panel report on war crimes, has used KP to plant wild allegations on the movement to create fissures among Tamils.
The Rajapaksaled Lankan government, which had already been feeling the heat internationally, saw the changed political scenario in neighbouring Tamil Nadu as detrimental to his country, the statement said.
Condemning KP for projecting himself as a senior LTTE leader, the statement said, “Persons like KP, who is in the custody of the Lankan forces, cannot lead the movement and the Tamil community knows that his actions in the recent past were very detrimental to the separate Tamil State.”
Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam alias Kumaran Pathmanathan alias Selvarasan Pathmanathan, better known as KP, was arrested by the Sri Lankan authorities from a foreign country in July 2009, barely a couple of months after the Lankan war ended with the killing of LTTE chief V Prabhakaran.
KP surfaced during the recent interview to CNN IBNFirstpost a couple of days ago, his first to a TV channel outside Sri Lanka, to tell the world that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had once planned to assassinate Jayalalithaa.
In the statement, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelamhas also appealed to the Tamil Diaspora to remain vigilant and not fall prey to the sinister designs of the Sinhalese government.
Express News Service