‘LTTE chief Prabhakaran alive, healthy; will make public appearance soon’: Tamil leader's shocking claim

News Network

February 13, 2023

Chennai, Feb 13: Fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government declared LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran dead, veteran former politician in Tamil Nadu politician Pazha Nedumaran today claimed that he is alive and healthy, and that he will soon make a public appearance.

Prabhakaran, who founded the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and led an extensive guerrilla campaign for a separate homeland for Lankan Tamils in the island nation, was declared dead on May 18, 2009 following an operation by Sri Lankan army at Mullivaikal. The Lankan government was then led by Mahinda Rajapaksa as President.

Mr Nedumaran, the president of the World Tamils Confederation, told journalist in Thanjavur, "LTTE chief Prabhakaran is alive and will appear soon. We are happy to announce this to the world. He would announce his plans for Tamil Eelam."

Explaining the timing of this announcement, he said, "The fall of the Rajapaksa government after the Sinhala uprising in Sri Lanka has created a conducive situation. This is the right time for his (Prabhakaran's) appearance."

Following the Sri Lankan government's announcement of Prabhakaran's death in 2009, several photographs and videos of a body were shared. Many had then claimed these were doctored. Others had alleged that the LTTE leader was shot dead in violation of international conventions when he came to surrender under a pact.

Prabhakaran was 54 at the time.

Pazha Nedumaran did not share any details about the LTTE leader's present location.

Prabhakaran was a prime accused in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a suicide bombing at Sriperumbudur in 1991 after which he was declared a proclaimed offender. He was also charged in some other assassination cases in Sri Lanka and LTTE was declared a banned terror organisation.

What began as a liberation movement with few other groups opposing decades of discrimination against Tamils in Sri Lanka, LTTE Chief Prabhakaran had later switched to armed struggle, known for its guerrilla warfare and suicide attacks. The LTTE became the first terror group to have an air force.

The Sri Lankan forces, on the other hand, were accused of human rights violations on a large scale.

More than a lakh Lankan Tamil civilians were allegedly killed in bombings in the final phase of war against the LTTE. A UN appointed lessons learnt and reconciliation commission too had investigated this. Sri Lanka is yet to respond.

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188 Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli army in Gaza

News Network

November 10,2024

The media office in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war since last October, says as many as 188 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the onset of the brutal military onslaught.

The office provided the figure on Saturday, naming four journalists as the most recent victims of the onslaught.

It identified the foursome as Zahraa Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Mustafa Khadr Bahar, and Abdel Rahman Khadr Bahar.

The office said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation and holds it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

“We call on the international community, international organizations, and those involved in journalistic work worldwide to take action against the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to halt the genocide and the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the office said the Israeli regime had bombed the tents sheltering journalists and displaced persons at the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the ninth consecutive time.

The atrocity that claimed the lives of two people and injured 26 others came as part of “the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against hospitals, civilians, and displaced persons,” it said.

The media office held the regime and the United States, its biggest ally, as well as other countries aiding the genocide fully responsible for such systematic crimes.

At least 43,552 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 102,765 others wounded since the launch of the war that followed a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The fatalities include 44 people, who were killed across the coastal sliver, in the most recent phase of the military onslaught.

As many as 24 of the victims were killed in the northern part of the territory, where the regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks for weeks.

They included an eight-year-old child and a five-year-old one, who lost their lives after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of minors filling up jerry cans with water alongside their mother at the Jabalia Refugee camp.

Gaza’s heath ministry, meanwhile, said a number of victims remained under the rubble and in the streets following Israeli airstrikes, saying ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them due to the sheer extent of the destruction caused by the raids and obstruction caused by the regime.

Also on Saturday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, a United Nations-backed assessment, warned that famine was looming in northern Gaza amid escalated Israeli aggression and the regime’s near-total siege of the targeted areas.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

The Israeli military, however, questioned the report's credibility.

"To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground," the army said in a statement, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

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