Saturday, July 31, 2004
LTTE kills leading Tamil army collaborator in Colombo
PK Balachanddran Colombo, July 31
The LTTE on Saturday assassinated Kandiah Yogarajan, known widely as "Plote Mohan", a leading Tamil paramilitary commander who worked with the Sri Lankan army in the Eastern district of Batticaloa.
The 41-year-old Plote Mohan was shot dead opposite a popular clothing store "House of Fashion", on Duplication Road, a busy Colombo street, in broad daylight.
A key figure in the anti-LTTE operations now being carried out by the renegade Col Karuna and others in Batticaloa district, Plote Mohan was shot with a 9 mm pistol by men on a motorbike at about 11.45 am, police said.
Kandiah Yogarajan acquired the name "Plote Mohan" when he was with the Peoples' Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), an anti-LTTE Tamil militant group, which later started working with the Sri Lankan Army in its operations against the LTTE.
Plote Mohan's killing is the third in a series of attacks on Tamils associated with Karuna, and Sri Lankan army intelligence in the month of July.
The first was an attempt on the life of Tamil cabinet minister KN Douglas Devananda with a suicide bomber in Colombo, and the second was the massacre of eight men belonging to the Karuna faction, just outside the capital.
The LTTE is reported to have decided to assassinate every member of the Karuna faction and Tamil personnel in the intelligence wing of the Sri Lankan army.
The army is accused to aiding and abetting Karuna, who had revolted against the LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in March.
Though the 41-day revolt was crushed militarily, the two sides are continuing a low intensity, and long drawn out fight to the finish.
That the LTTE is very serious about finishing Karuna, is indicated by its decision not to resume peace talks with the Sri Lankan government so long as the Karuna issue is alive.
According to the Tamil dailies of Colombo on Saturday, the LTTE's political advisor and chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, had conveyed this to the Norwegian peace broker and Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen when the latter met him in London earlier this week.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.