LTTE (popularly called ‘The Tigers’) – The most controversial and dreaded term/group for over 3 decades from the south of India to the deep pockets of Malaysia and anywhere in the world with a substantial population of Tamil speaking people.

Started in the late 70s, this seperatist group under the leadership of its founder V.Prabhakaran grew like a weed spreading across its ideology and crippling growth wherever it found a foot hold. For reasons of ethnicity and political supremacy this group found patronage from India which later proved too costly.

Just being one of the Tamil groups of the country taking up arms, demanding more power for Tamils of the land was considered as ineffective so this group cannibalized on other fellow Tamil groups over the years. This was done partially to eliminate the possibility of a compromised settlement short of winning a Tamil land which was beccoming the top most priority of Prabhakaran and partially to eliminate competition if such a dream comes true. Repeated attempts by countries like India and Norway to bring a peaceful end to the decades of bloody misery of the civilians has been futile. LTTE has a pattern of extending an arm for peace when the hand runs out of ammunitions and gets back to their tricks once they recuperate from losses, dirtier and bloodier than before.

Quick list of famous crimes by LTTE

• Alfred Duraiappah, mayor of Jaffna (1975)
• Rajeev Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (1991)
• Ranjan Wijeratne, Sri Lankan cabinet minister and former general (1991)
• Ranasinghe Premadasa, President of Sri Lanka (1993)
• Gamini Dissanayake, Sri Lankan presidential candidate (1994)
• Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lankan foreign minister, lawyer and international humanitarian (2005)
• Major Gen. Parami Kulatunga, third-highest ranking officer in the Sri Lankan Army(2006)
• Nadaraja Raviraj, Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian (2006)
• Chandrika Kumaratunga, President of Sri Lanka (failed attempt-2006)
• Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka army chief of staff (failed attempt-2006)
• Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Secretary of the Sri Lanka defense ministry (failed
  attempt- 2006)

Initially, suspected to be trained by Israeli Mosad on guerilla warfare, LTTE must get the credit for pineering and mastering the art of suicide bombing. It runs a strong group called ‘nizhal’ (translates to ‘shadow’ in English) for suicide missions. They are also proved to have used minor children for front line combats.

LTTE is the only terrorist group in the world known to have a fleet of ships, anti-aircraft guns, air force, surface-to-air missiles and even a submarine. A submarine was captured by Indian Navy in 1992. Long before 9/11, IPKF unearthed a micro light manufacturing unit that was used by LTTE to customize light aircrafts for suicide missions. The nature of Al-Qaeda’s 1991 attack on USS Cole suggests cross group relationships and exchange of expertise.

The LTTE attack on the World Trade Centre in Sri Lanka was followed by attacks by al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center in New York. The LTTE’s use of a women’s section has being copied by al-Qaeda and Chechen terrorists, for example the “Black Widows” who played a role in the Moscow theater hostage crisis and have carried out suicide bombings. Attacks on civilians in buses and trains in Sri Lanka are similar to the al-Qaeda attacks on public civilian transport during the July 2005 bombings in London.

The other side of the ugly face of LTTE is its political arm. With the rapid fall of the military wing it could be this arm (as in the deadly arm of an octopus) that could help the organization stay alive. The challenge being the political wing having penetrated Tamil speaking population all over the globe and working undercover it takes greater strategy to weed out their function and choke support for any survival attempt. While the military efforts depends mostly on the arms power of Sri Lankan government the political efforts would take a greater co-operation by the international community mainly India it’s closest neighbour and fellow sufferer of the LTTE menace.

Learning from its IPKF experience and Rajiv Gandhi assasination India must stay resolved not to physically interfere in the internal war of Sri Lanka and fervently crush any attempts within its borders to muster support for LTTE which India had banned and branded a terrorist organization. This is also a lesson to India on dealing with terrorism with zero tolerance limits.

Congratulating the Sri Lankan government on their successful capture of Kilinochi and wishing them for a continued success until finish on this war on terror I hope that this particular species of ‘The tiger’ goes extinct forever.