LTTE chief Prabhakaran to escape Lanka war zone by sea?

The Lankan Army has said that Daya Master, the voice of LTTE who surrendered last week, has revealed that Prabhakaran may escape by sea.

At a press conference in Killinochi, the former LTTE capital, the Lankan Army also said that Prabhakaran himself is directing the entire operation.

This was feared. And now, there is the confirmation.

Meanwhile, New Delhi is pushing hard for a truce in Sri Lanka. Two top officials, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, will be in Colombo on Friday to press for an end to hostilities.

However, the big question is - will the Sri Lankan government listen to India?

President Rajapakse has made it clear he will not give in to pressure from the international community including India, and will go in for the final push against the LTTE.

PTI adds: "Prabhakaran, who is present in the no-fire zone along with his son Charles Anthony, Tigers' intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Sea Tiger chief Soosai, might have retained a submarine to escape from the island," Brigadier Shavendra Desilva, the General-Officer-Commanding 58 Division, said on Friday.

"This was revealed by LTTE's former spokesman Daya Master, who surrendered to the army this week," Brigadier Desilva told a select group of reporters visiting LTTE's former political capital Killinochi in the embattled north.

"Prabhakaran is only supported by Amman and Soosai and other Tamil Tiger leaders will leave him if they will get an opportunity," Desilva quoted Master as saying.

Daya Master and George, a close aide of slain Tiger political wing head S P Thamilchelvan, gave themselves up to the army at Putumathalan in the no-fire zone on April 22.

Master told the army that though Prabhakaran says he would not leave the area, the Tamil Tigers' chief would run away at the first given opportunity.

Brig Desilva said army was very close to Prabhakaran but the LTTE leader fled just two days before troops captured the area where he was hiding in the no-fire zone on March 31.