Revolutionary groups form themselves with an assumption that they shall function to fulfil a grave purpose. In whatsoever ways, all they care about is accomplishment of that purpose which they deem important. Friends or foes, it all changes for them based on context and necessities. This lesson, that terror groups are not always the greatest of friends, was learnt the hard way by the Gandhi family; as a former Prime Minister of the nation was assassinated by a suicide bomber on 21st May 1991.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber from the LTTE – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. This group was formed in 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a revolutionary group that aimed to form a separate Tamil State within Sri Lanka. Once considered to be a prominent and influential entity, this group was aided strongly by Indian ministers – prominently Indira Gandhi and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M G Ramachandran.
This shocking revelation was made by none other than a former LTTE Chief International Arms Producer Kumaran Pathmanathan, alias KP. KP was the leader of LTTE after the death of its founder – Velupillai Prabhakaran, and was wanted by the Indian forces for a long time in association with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. He was arrested by the Sri Lankan authorities in Malaysia in August 2009, and was later granted pardon against all opposition.
He is now said to be a reformed man taking care of three orphanages. Who knows how much of that is true, but there are other statements that KP has confidently made on national television. In an interview with Zee News, KP first revealed that his family was not aware of his associations with the terrorist group.
But the other revelations he made are what we are interested in. He has made it clear that the LTTE has no connections with the Nepali and Indian Maoist groups whatsoever. Alongside, he has confidently claimed that the LTTE was aided by India’s former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the mother of the man who was suicide bombed by the same group. Indira Gandhi had asked RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) to provide all kinds of aid to LTTE. This happened on the grounds that Indira Gandhi tried negotiating with the Sri Lankan government regarding the Tamil speaking residents in Sri Lanka. However, as militant groups began rising propagating the same ideals, Indira Gandhi found it appropriate to lend whatever kind of supports these groups needed. Following the same ideal, Rajiv Gandhi too had tried to sustain a balanced relationship with the Sri Lankan government, as well as LTTE.
The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu – M G Ramachandran was also involved in the supporting act, as there were a number of exchanges taking place over the seashores of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. The exchanges took place between M G Ramachandran’s groups and LTTE, and the Sri Lankan marine defences weren’t competent enough to trace that out.
Regardless of the painstaking (though blasphemous) efforts made by Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to keep the LTTE happy, the militant group stood true to its definition. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a suicide bomber from the very group. The technique of suicide bombing, as revealed by KP, was adopted and trained by Velupillai Prabhakaran himself, deriving ‘inspiration’ from Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
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