By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : The Tamil Tiger rebels suffered yet another major blow Saturday, when the chief of their military intelligence, Shanmuganathan Ravishankar alias Col. Charles, and three of his lieutenants, were killed in a Sri Lankan army ambush in Mannar in northwest Sri Lanka, the defence ministry announced Sunday.
Confirming the death of Charles, the pro-Tiger website Tamilnet said that a Deep Penetration Unit of the army had set off a claymore mine between Iluppaikadavai and Paalamadu on seeing the foursome travelling in a van.
According to Tamilnet, Charles had joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1985 and had fought against the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) between 1987 and 1990.
His exploits in the battlefield against the Indians had led to his absorption into the intelligence wing of the LTTE under the stewardship of Pottu Amman, the ace intelligence operative. Charles became head of military intelligence in 2004.
According to the Sri Lankan defence ministry, Charles had been behind many terrorist strikes in south Sri Lanka including the capital city of Colombo.
He had been responsible for the bombing of the Central Bank in 1996 in which 86 civilians were killed and 1,400 were wounded. For this “exploit” LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran had gifted him with a Pajero jeep.
The defence ministry believes that Charles had masterminded the bombing of the Kolannawa oil storage tanks, the Kelenitissa power plant and the Joint Operations Command Centre, all in Colombo.
Charles had won the confidence of Prabhakaran as he was reputed to be an expert on Colombo city.
He had also been luring Sri Lankan security forces personnel to work for the LTTE, the ministry said. This had led to the elimination of a number of military intelligence officers and others in the forces.
According to the defence ministry, intelligence chief Pottu Amman had become jealous of the success of Charles and his growing closeness to Prabhakaran. As a compromise, Prabhakaran moved Charles to Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, just before the 2002 ceasefire. It was only in 2005 that Charles could be brought back to Wanni. He was killed in Mannar in west Wanni.
DPA adds: At least 30 rebels were killed in four different incidents in the Mannar district as well as the northern Vavuniya district, where fighting has escalated during the past week with heavy shelling between the rebels and security forces being reported.
The military also recovered more than 200 anti-personnel mines in the Mannar area during a search operation.