How Prabhakaran's body was identified

Slain LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's body was identified by his two former aides with the help of certain scars and birth marks.

Federal minister Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran, alias Karuna Amman, one time close confidante of Prabhakaran, and Daya Master, the former LTTE media spokesman who had surrendered recently, identified the Tiger supremo's body after he was killed on May 18.

"They identified and confirmed that the body recovered was that of Prabhakaran. Certain scars and birth marks had helped them in identification. Thus, the army was able to squash all rumours regarding Prabhakaran being alive," the 'Bottomline' newspaper said.

Prabhakaran was killed by commandos, who only collect the personal weapons of the slain terrorists and not their bodies as a rule. They then produce the arms before their Commanding officers (COs) or Brigade Commanders, the newspaper said.

On the evening of May 18, a commando handed over to his CO, a pistol and a hip holster, the mid-week newspaper said. The pistol carried the inscription T.V.P 001, raising suspicion that it belonged to Prabhakaran.

T.V.P 001 means Thamil Vidudalai Puligal (Tamil Liberation Tigers) and military intelligence confirmed that it was indeed Prabhakaran's pistol, the newspaper said.

Karuna Amman and Daya Master were then brought to the scene to identify Prabhakaran's body.

About Prabhakaran's family, the newspaper noted that there were rumours that his wife, younger son and daughter too had been killed during the final battles.

However, an officer from the battlefront said they had not recovered any bodies of children, it said.

"When intelligence agents interrogated a close aide of Prabhakaran, he had said that, last year, Prabhakaran's wife (Mathivathani) and younger son Balachandran had escaped by boat to Tamil Nadu, where they were to meet with an LTTE cadre who was to arrange for them to fly to Singapore, from there to an unknown destination," the newspaper reported.

"Prabhakaran's daughter, Duwarka, who was said to be studying in Ireland, during the height of the final battle, hadn't returned to Sri Lanka, but had been in touch with her father via phone, revealed a credible source from Norway," it said.

"She (Prabhakaran's daughter) had arrived in Oslo as instructed by her father, as there were many to take care of her there," the Bottomline said.

According to Karuna, a spokesman for LTTE's International Relations head S Pathmanathan had told him that Tiger supremo's wife and daughter were dead.

Karuna was the LTTE commander of the Eastern region before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004.

"But I cannot confirm this personally... If they (Prabhakaran's family) were in the No Fire Zone, they could not have escaped," Karuna said in Vavuniya on Tuesday.

The slain Tiger supremo's wife and daughter were earlier believed to have fled to Europe as the conflict intensified in Sri Lanka's north.

Sri Lankan army has neither found their bodies nor mentioned much about them.

The whereabouts of Prabhakaran's 13-year-old son Balachandran are also not known while LTTE chief's elder son Charles Anthony was killed and his body found in the No Fire Zone.