The slain LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s wife and daughter as well as his top aide Pottu Amman have died in the Sri Lankan conflict, the Tigers’ International spokesman S.Pathmanathan has told the rebel supremo’s ex-rally Karuna Amman. Col Karuna, the LTTE commander who fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, said that Pathmanathan has claimed that the wife and daughter of Prabhakaran were dead. Mathivathani and daughter Duwarka were earlier believed to have fled to Europe. The whereabouts of Prabhakaran’s 13-year-old son Balachandran are also not known.
Meanwhile, the Lanakan military said it wants to boost its army by more than 100,000 troops to prevent resurgence of the Tamil Tigers or any other such group. The troop build up, which will increase the number of Sri Lankan forces from 200,000 to 300,000, was announced by the Army chief Gen Sarath Fonseka. “There may be people abroad trying to promote a new leader and stage a comeback,” he told a state run television. The Lankan Government said it was holding 9,100 suspected former Tamil Tiger rebel fighters, most of whom were being sent for “rehabiliation and vocational training.”