Prabhakaran: terrorist or freedom fighter?

Vellupillai Prabhakaran, LTTE supremo and inventor of suicide bombing, is finally dead. His end came at the hands of the Sri Lankan armed forces, who had been on the look out for him for a long time. Prabhakaran emerged on the scene 37 years ago, when he formed his terrorist outfit, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE] supposedly to win the rights for the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, who were allegedly being subject to inhumanity and discrimination in that country. Prabhakaran, at the age of 14, took it to himself to win those rights for the Sri Lankan Tamils. In doing so, he emerged as a leader of a terrorist outfit that added every lethal weapon to its repertoire in the process of gaining military strength to fight the Sri Lankan armed forces. There is no weapon that the LTTE does not possess -- from air power to naval strength to artillery. The Tamil diaspora helped the LTTE to a great extent in this regard, with financial and other support. With this armed power, the LTTE massacred not only the innocent Sinhalese population but also the Tamil people, comprising of women, men, children, young and old, leaders and commoners. The targeted list of LTTE also included former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was blown up by Dhanu, a female suicde bomber who blew herself up in front of Rajiv Gandhi. Today, Prabhakaran is dead and with him has died the LTTE. Is it so? Is the LTTE also dead with Prabhakaran? Prabhakaran was the supremo of a terrorist organization, thus he was very much a savage, brutal terrorist, who killed everyone and anyone who came in his way; for Prabhakaran, power was his only interest, the struggle that he began as a freedom struggle took the form of terrorism, in which terror, brutality were unleashed on all. Well, Prabhakaran was very much a killer and a terrorist who had his vested interests in mind all the time, therefore he killed his compatriots as well, whenever it seemed to him that they were gaining more strength than him and becoming popular. There are several Tamils still who feel that Prabhakaran was their god, who was sent on earth to win their rights for them. But if you recount, you will realise that Prabhakaran had his own agenda, that is, to gain power, no matter at what cost -- could be at the cost of the people for whom he was fighting or with whom he was fighting, might be his cheerleaders or compatriots. Was he a savior of Tamils when he was himself responsible for the massacre of so many Tamil leaders? Was he a friend of Tamils when he took them as human shields when the last fighting was going on between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan armed forces?

Whenever he sat for talks with the Lankan Government, he stabbed the latter in the back every time. Whenever the cease-fire would be declared, Prabhakaran would launch a suicide attack, catching everyone unawares. There is no count of the suicide attacks that Prabhakaran's LTTE unleashed on the innocent Sinhalese, Buddhists and even Tamils.

It is because of him that so many innocent Tamils had to lose their lives even when the battle was in its last stage, because Prabhakaran wanted to emerge alive from the aggression taking the Tamils as human shields. No doubt Prabhaikaran was a great leader, who knew how to handle his forces, who knew how to motivate them, who was well aware of every single LTTE fighter's performance, who knew when and how to attack. But what did Prabhakaran actually gain -- he lost everything, including his son --Charles Antony, who was so very dear to him. In his last moments, even his wife, daughter and son were not close to him. What kind of a life did Prabhakaran live -- the life of a terrorist or a freedom fighter? Today, when he is dead, where does his Eelam [homeland] demand go from here; what about the remnants of LTTE; will another Prabhakaran emerge out of the ashes of the dead LTTE supremo? Let's see what comes out of all this?

You never know how many more Prabhakaran's are moving around freely. Al-Qaeda and Taliban and naxallites and Basque separatists and FARC militia.... and the list is too long to pen down. Terrorism has to be nipped in the bud before it swallows the entire world, or the entire humanity. Terrorists have no ideology, no identity...their only identity is brutality!