The Tigers refused to forgive Douglas Devananda and tried to assassinate him repeatedly. He later said: "(LTTE chief Velupillai) Prabhakaran cannot kill me." Destiny proved him right.
'Why are IPKF martyrs not being officially recognised and appropriately honoured? And is the government really changing its mind on this now?', asks Aditi Phadnis.
A UN report highlights the lack of justice for Tamil civilians who experienced sexual violence during Sri Lanka's civil war, primarily by security forces.
Human Rights Watch urges Sri Lanka to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the civil war, citing a UN report on sexual violence against Tamil civilians.
'Mark had such a profound understanding of India, which was, of course, the land of his birth as well as of his death... He loved India, and lived two-thirds of his life here.'
Sreenivasan could so willingly be 'our little man' because in his heart of hearts he never felt trivial or inconsequential. And to the very end he stayed that way, the shrimp who knew he was a giant. Sreehari Nair doffs his hat to the late legend.
Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad received a threat email claiming a 'human bomb' on an IndiGo flight from Jeddah, leading to its diversion to Mumbai where it landed safely. Authorities are investigating the threat.
Sri Lanka stays with you not just in memory, but gently reminds you what a society can achieve when heart and heritage guide the way.
Skeletal remains of a young girl have been identified among human remains exhumed from a mass grave in Sri Lanka's Jaffna district, a site linked to the LTTE conflict in the mid-1990s. The discovery has renewed calls for investigation into alleged war crimes.
You are hooked on The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case from the first episode, applauds Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'... Rahul Gandhi's name came to my mind at that time.'
'The LTTE were the pioneers of that.'
'The CBI did a wonderful job of tracking down the killers, but at the end of the day, all the hard work went for a toss.' 'If we had caught them alive, the operation would have been successful completely.'
'This was a decision taken and executed by Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman. Both were convinced that the assassination would not be linked to them.'
Since the IPKF's withdrawal from Sri Lanka in March 1990, the LTTE's once-powerful influence in Tamil Nadu has faded.
A new book by former West Bengal governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi claims that former chief election commissioner T N Seshan proposed an immediate halt to the general election process after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination in 1991 and even offered to become home minister. Gandhi, who was joint secretary to then president R Venkatraman, writes that Seshan was the one who broke the news of the assassination to the president and arrived at the Rashtrapati Bhawan "super-fast" that night. According to Gandhi's account, Seshan told Venkatraman that he felt the election process needed to be stopped and that he was ready to take on the role of home minister if necessary. However, Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar and Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra assured the president that the situation was under control and that there was no need to pause the election process. Seshan's suggestions were ultimately ignored, but he did manage to postpone the second and third phases of polling.
At least 24 people were arrested by the security forces for defying the ban on celebrations, officials said.
'For weeks, months and years, it would continue to be debated if India should have pushed the early advantage and decapacitated Pakistan militarily.' 'India refused to bite the provocatively proverbial bullet and escalate it into a full-fledged war,' notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
On the night of July 5, the Tigers launched their first kamikaze operation. Miller took the wheels of the explosive-packed truck, smiled at everyone as he turned the ignition key and drove it slowly towards the Sri Lankan military camp. A few moments later all of Jaffna heard a thunderous explosion that brought the complex crashing down in clouds of dust. Miller had given birth to a deadly tactic that Prabhakaran would employ time and again with devastating consequences to Sri Lanka -- and India. A fascinating excerpt from M R Narayan Swamy's must read new book, The Rout Of Prabhakaran.
The Indian authorities have to reconfirm that Prabhakaran is dead. It may require seeking assistance from Interpol and also involve the re-opening of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and more so, the investigations, formally or otherwise, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sent a judicial request to the United States seeking information from private investigator Michael Hershman, who has claimed to possess crucial details about the Rs 64-crore Bofors bribery scandal of the 1980s. Hershman, the head of the Fairfax Group, had previously expressed his willingness to share information with Indian agencies, alleging that the investigation into the scam was derailed by the then Congress government. The CBI's request comes after previous attempts to obtain information from US authorities yielded no results. This move highlights the continued efforts to uncover the truth behind the decades-old scandal, which has had a significant impact on Indian politics.
The NIA had filed the case suo motu on July 8 last year and arrested the 13 persons from Tamil Nadu.
Fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government announced his death, a veteran Tamil nationalist leader claimed in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, on Monday that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, is doing well and said a conducive atmosphere prevails for him to appear now.
Sri Lanka's National People's Power of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Friday swept the parliamentary elections by winning a two-thirds majority, and also dominating the Jaffna electoral district -- the heartland of the nation's Tamil minority.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is currently facing public demand for his resignation over his mishandling of the economic crisis, is the man who ruthlessly ended Sri Lanka's nearly 30-year civil war with the LTTE with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009.
Aseem Chhabra lists his favourite 2024 films that he watched at film festivals held in Berlin, Cannes, Toronto and India.
The notification stated that the LTTE's continued violent and disruptive activities are prejudicial to the integrity and sovereignty of India.
The Madras high court has refused bail to two persons, said to be the members of the banned organisation LTTE, who attempted to loot Rs 40 crore lying idle in the savings bank account of a dead man.
Aseem Chhabra's Top 10 Films/ Series from TIFF 2024 includes films that he watched for the first time in Toronto. The films were impressive due to their rigor, passion, unique storytelling style and sometimes exploring the vulnerable sides of big name stars.
For India to view the new Sri Lankan leadership only through the prism of the past or through their narrow view on China, is fraught with possibilities that should be avoided, asserts N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a televised address to the nation, Mahinda, who is under growing pressure to quit due to the worst economic crisis facing the island nation, said that he understands the people's sufferings.
Scotland Yard's War Crimes Team, which is part of its Counter-Terrorism Command, has launched an investigation into the role of British mercenaries in fighting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in Sri Lanka during the 1980s.
Unless the north and east of the island was given complete autonomy, 'the Tamil people will fight to establish the Tamil sovereignty in their homeland,'said a LTTE communique.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday asked the Tamil National Alliance, country's main Tamil political party, to shed the 'LTTE mentality' and join hands with the government to deal with various contentious issues.
"The LTTE is still using innocent civilians as hostages. They don't let them go out of the areas controlled by them. 'Viduthalai Puligal' (LTTE cadres) have killed a number of people in Sudanthirapuram area when they tried to flee from them," Daya Master, who surrendered to the Army last week, told the Sri Lankan state television.
Dismissing as "engineered rumours", the Sri Lankan government's assertion that Vellupillai Prabhakaran had been killed in the fighting in the north, the Tamil Tigers have claimed that the LTTE supremo is alive.
LTTE's head of International relations Selvarasa Pathmanathan told BBC that their 'incomparable leader had attained martyrdom'.
A pro-LTTE website, tamilnet.com, today claimed that the Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is still "alive and safe", a day after Sri Lankan army announced that it has killed the top rebel leader.
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