COLOMBO: Charles Anthony, the 24-year-old elder son of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, was injured in ground battle in the Puthukudiyiruppu area of north east Sri Lanka about a week ago, government military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, told to The New Indian Express here on Wednesday.
“Through technical sources we have confirmed that Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony was wounded last week in a confrontation with ground troops,” he said, adding no details of the injuries were known.
Prabhakaran’s location is uncertain, though the Tigers say their leader is with his men in the 21 square kilometre strip of coastal jungle that the rebels still hold.
Nanayakkara said that Charles Anthony alias Dhanasekaran was trained in the manufacture and use of exposives and also aeronautical engineering. He was instrumental in producing the powerful RAGHAVAN I, II, and III bombs and the SAMADANAM artillery shells used by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE ).
Anthony’s aerial bombs were fitted into the LTTE aircraft, which had raided Colombo and other targets in government administered areas eight times thus far.
As an aeronatical engineer and air warfare expert, young Charles Anthony masterminded the LTTE ’s first aerial attack targeting the Sri Lakan Air Force’s principal base at Katunayake, 35 km north of Colombo on March 26, 2007. Subsequently, he masterminded the attack on the oil storage facility at Kolonnawa and the Muthurajawela gas storage station in the outskirts of the capital city on April 29 the same year. However, his plan to bomb Palaly, the SLAF’s only base in the Jaffna peninsula, on April 24, had failed.
Charles Anthony was born in Tamil Nadu on April 18, 1985. Prabhakaran named him thus out of respect for an LTTE cadre of the same name who had died in action in Meesalai in 1983.
LTTE technical chief killed
The defence ministry on Wednesday announced that security forces had also killed another senior Tiger figure, S Kirupakaran, who handled the rebels’ satellite and radio communication units.
As troops try to deal the final blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE ) another nine rebels were killed in the latest fighting, according the government.
The soldiers “met with stiff LTTE resistance while advancing into a heavily fortified LTTE defence position,” the defence ministry said.
There was no immediate comment from the Tigers, but pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website said military shelling killed 45 civilians inside the jungle area which is still under rebel control.
with agency inputs