1:33 AM

Pulidevan under house arrest?

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry claimed here that on the basis of “intelligence reports” on Monday that senior LTTE leader Seevaratnam Prabaharan alias Pulidevan is under “house arrest on charges of treachery” against the outfit.

To buttress its claim, the Ministry said Mr. Pulidevan was not seen at the funeral of Balraj, a senior LTTE leader who died of a heart attack recently.

There was no response from the Tigers to the claim. Usually the LTTE does not respond to the military’s claims on the ground situation and suggestions of “power struggle” within the outfit.

Mr. Pulidevan is the chief of “LTTE Peace Secretariat,” a body created after the recently abrogated 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) between the government and the Tigers, and was also a member of the LTTE negotiating team in the peace talks.

In a statement here, the Defence Ministry claimed that the “arrest” had been made as a result of a “worsening internal dispute” among key LTTE figures. “An armed gang led by LTTE’s intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman had made the arrest few days back.”

It said Pottu Amman “framed charges against Pulidevan for treachery against the outfit. The bitter power struggle fought among the LTTE leaders has led to bloody violence even in European countries where the loyalists of different leaders fight internecine battles.”

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