Pottu Amman relieved of duties

Internal conflict among top Tiger leaders

The internal conflict among the

 top leadership of the

 LTTE came to a head recently when the Tiger Intelligence Unit (TOSI) and the Black Tigers (Karum Puligal)

 Chief

 Shanmugaligam Sivashanker, better known as Pottu Amman,

 was removed from the post by the LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The differences among the Tiger hierarchy at the moment

 is similar to the internal

 conflicts that arose with the breakaway of its Eastern Leader Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna four

 years ago.

Pottu Amman had been

 replaced b

y another senior leader Rutnam Master, who is in-charge of Prabhakaran’s personal

 security as well as being the

 head of the LTTE’s Special Force – Radha Regiment and the Air Wing. His

 personal details are not available, as he has functioned as one of the most secretive operatives within the

 LTTE.

State intelligence units had uncovered that Pottu Amman,

 of whom nothing much is known about, had been removed by the LTTE Leader

 for failing to carry out any attacks on the military as well as VIP targets tasked to him in

 recent years. Among them were the assassination attempts on Army Commander Sarath Fonseka

 and Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Two lorries laden with a large

 amount of explosives, that were recovered by the defence authorities were also among the failed attempts of Pottu

 Amman.

Wanted by the Interpol for terrorism, Pottu Amman has

 been a man of mystery within the LTTE even more than its Leader Prabhakaran. He headed

 almost all the operations outside the North

 and East and masterminded many of the suicide attacks

 against the country’s political leaders and anti-LTTE Tamil political party members as well as senior military officials.

 He is one of the most wanted by the Indian defence authorities for the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv

 Gandhi.

The removal of Pottu Amman from the Intelligence Unit had

 been done in mid this year and soon after he had been sent to Muhamalai  for three months by the LTTE Leadership. It is

 revealed that he was called back to Mullaitivu by the LTTE leadership and had

 not been assigned for any work thereafter.

With the removal of Pottu Amman the effectiveness of the

 LTTE intelligence section had seen drastic come down. However, the LTTE leader did not publicise the removal of Pottu

 Amman as it would directly affect the ground level intelligence operatives, who have direct or indirect contacts with Pottu

 Amman. Since Pottu Amman’s removal, Rutnam Master had been overlooking the spy section of the organization alongwith the LTTE Leader

 himself. With the taking over, Prabhakran and Rutnam Master carried out successful attack on the Anuradhapura Air Force base, where a large number of

 military air craft were destroyed.

However, the second such type of attack on the Vavuniya Air Force base and the Wanni Security Forces

 Headquarters was a failure. Since then no successful attacks were carried out by the LTTE, except a few bomb

 explosions in public passenger transport buses.

Although the removal of Pottu Amman did not come to light for a long time, it had taken its toll

 on the ground level cadres in a bad way. The lack of ground

 support to carry out any attacks including suicide attacks were the main disadvantage of his removal. In recent times when LTTE suicide cadres had come to carry out attacks in the south

, they had not received support from LTTE sympathisers due to the tight security in the country as well as the heavy setbacks suffered

 by the Tigers in the battle field.

After receiving the training, suicide cadres travel from the Wanni without anything in their posession.

 When they arrive at the target areas, they have to be provided with accommodation, suicide kits, etc. by others who are assigned to handle them. But in the

 recent past there had been almost no one to provide such assistance to any of the suicide cadres. The recovery of

 explosives, suicide kits and ammunition in large amounts was a result of it.

Intelligence agencies also revealed that most of such

 agents, who provided accommodation, suicide kits etc. had fled the country with a large amount of money, that

 had been given to them by the LTTE.

Pottu

 Amman had joined the LTTE in the early 80s after a long stint abroad. His wife is from Sandiweli, near the Eastern

 University and they have two children-- a girl and a boy.  He is said to have been in charge of the LTTE camps in Tamil Nadu coastal areas during the early

 days of the LTTE.

In 1985 he was kidnapped by PLOTE cadres in Mahalingapuram, Chennai; and was released in exchange for

 Kannan, abducted by the LTTE.

Pottu Amman had been a threat to almost all second level leaders of the LTTE. Slain LTTE Political

 Leader S.P. Thamilchelvan, LTTE Sea Tiger Leader Soosai, then Eastern Military Leader Karuna were constantly complaining to the

 LTTE Leader about Pottu Amman and his activities, as these leaders eyed the second in Command position of the organization. Pottu Amman was virtually functioning as the

 second in command of the LTTE and used his ‘spy section’ to keep other senior leaders in check. Soon after the air strike on the LTTE Leader’s hideout

 in Kilinochchi, where Thamilchelvan got killed, it was suspected that the information

 about the whereabouts of Thamilchelvan had been leaked out to the

 military by Pottu Amman.

However, knowing these matters, Prabhakaran did not want to appoint any

 deputies for him.

Despite this development, Prabhakaran had virtually removed most of his senior commanders from their

 posts including Sea Tiger Leader Soosai and Swarnam for continuous failures in the battlefield. Though they are still in their posts, several other

 senior leaders have been appointed to overlook them.

‘Colonel’ Bhanu who was the Special Leader of the Charles

 Anthony Brigade and ‘Colonel’ Velavan, who was the Special Leader of the Impran Pandiya Brigade were also removed from their posts and deployed in the battle field.Soosai also

 failed several attacks on the Navy in the seas in the recent past. The Sea Tiger unit had lost a large number of cadres and boats as well.

Wanni battlefield

Following days of heavy and intense fighting between troops and the LTTE in the borders of the Kilinochchi town, west of Paranthan, Adampan, Nevil

, Puthumurrippukulam and Iranamadu, troops of the Task

 Force -1 now engaged in West of Paranthan, on Tuesday consolidated 300metres further southwards along the LTTE built earth bund cum ditch and

 captured an LTTE strongpoint, Sinna-Paranthan.

During the fighting over 20 LTTE cadres were killed and

 many injured. Troops have recovered five LTTE bodies, a similar number of T-56 assault riffles and an I-com set while

 consolidating defences in the area.

Troops faced stiff resistance from the LTTE in the battle in Sinna-Paranthan, which is located along the A-35 main road, 6km West of the Paranthan Township

.

With the battle closing on the LTTE’s administrative town of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, the LTTE leadership has called

 almost all the Sea Tigers to the battlefield. Most of the guns that were mounted on the Sea Tiger boats were also removed and

 brought to the battle front with the intensification of fighting.

According to intercepted LTTE communications ground cadres were ordered to put maximum efforts to prevent the military

 entering the Kilinochchi town.

However, the LTTE had hinted that they would lose Kilinochchi town and its

 adjoining areas. LTTE’s Political Wing Leader P.Nadeshan in a recent interview had said that

Even though Kilinochchi falls they would continue fighting.

Earlier, LTTE

 chief Prabakaran in mid-November assured to defend its main garrison town, while promising to stall the surging

 military offensives aimed at Kilinochchi. But now the troops had entered the northern part of the Kilinochchi town.

Secret operation to attack BIA revealed

 

Details of a covert operation to raid the Bandaranaike International Airport was revealed on the Christmas Day night, by a special intelligence team.

Accordingly, two LTTE suspects one from Vavuniya and Negombo had been arrested. They had told the defence authorities that while launching an attack using LTTE air craft, a simultaneous the ground attack was planned using more than 20 suicide cadres to raid the Airport and adjoining air force military complex, where the Kfir and Mig fighter jets are housed.

It is learnt that already some of those LTTE cadres for the attack had arrived in the Katunayake area. Their main objective had been to destroy air force fighter jets, that continuously target the LTTE military positions in the Wanni and to isolate the airport internationally.

The weapons and suicide kits for this planned operation had reportedly been brought to the Katunayake area already, according to the arrested suspects.

Police believe that several military items, including explosives and suicide kits that were recovered from Kimbulapitiya in Negombo had been brought to carry out the attack on the airport.

The attack had reportedly been planned to be carried out in a similar fashion as of the attack on the Anuradhapura Air Force base. The plan had been to send two LTTE light aircraft to the Katunayake airport to divert the attention of the defence authorities and launch a ground attack at that moment.

With this development, the security at the airport had been strengthened and the entering of Cars and Vans to the air port had been stopped. Action is to be taken to stop all vehicles entering the airport.

Courtesywww.dailymirror.lk