COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government on Thursday denied that the LTTE’s intelligence chief, Pottu Amman, has been arrested, and said that Pottu Amman had died during the last phase of Eelam War IV in May 2009.
“We had not recovered his body, but interrogation of LLTE cadre had established quite clearly that he had perished,” said the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, who was commander of the Lankan army in the Wanni at that time.
“The LTTE rump may be putting up such stories to tell the Tamil Diaspora that the militant movement has not been crushed. It is also a ruse to collect money at a time when the Diaspora is losing interest in the LTTE,” the defence staff said
Lankan military intelligence has also trashed the story of the arrest which appeared in a Tamil website www.jaffnajet.com and went viral on the net soon after.
The website said that Pottu Amman was arrested on September 9 at Hong Kong, as he was trying to fly to Canada to see his wife and family and that he was to be brought to Sri Lanka.