By KUNA,
New Delhi : A top leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who coordinated planning and conducting operations in Sri Lanka, has died following a cardiac arrest. LTTE leader Balasegaram Kandiah alias Brigadier Balraj, aged 42, passed away yesterday. “It is with profound sadness that we inform Tamil people that Brigadier Balraj passed away on May 20 following a heart attack. May 21-23 are hereby declared as national days of mourning on his passing away,” an LTTE statement said at Colombo Wednesday. Balraj was an expert on different forms of warfare. A native of LTTE stronghold Mullaitivu district, he commanded “Charles Antony Brigade” till 1997. Balraj had a heart surgery in Singapore in 2003. Balraj’s death was a major setback to the LTTE after the death of senior leaders — Anton Balasingham and S P Thamilselvan. While LTTE ideologue Balasingham died of cancer in London in 2006, its political wing chief Thamilselvan was killed in a Sri Lankan air force attack in 2007. Meanhwile, Sri Lankan Daily “Island Newspaper” said today: “Balraj was deputy chief of the LTTE and had been involved in almost all the major offensives in the northern theatre. Over the past two years, the LTTE has lost several senior leaders due to security forces’ action while the top eastern province leadership had quit the organisation over differences.”