COLOMBO, JULY 31. A key anti-LTTE intelligence operative, Kandiah Yogarasa (better known as `PLOTE Mohan') was shot dead in the heart of Colombo city this morning by suspected LTTE gunmen.
Mr. Mohan (41) was gunned down with a 9 mm pistol around 11.20 a.m. local time on the normally busy Duplication Road, in the heart of the city. Military analysts see today's killing as "a prize hit" by the Tigers who "have been gunning for him for several years." An eyewitness saw Mr. Mohan being shot dead, "but was unable to describe the killers." The lone witness to the murder "is not sure if the assailants were on a motor-cycle or a van, but had said that they escaped in a vehicle," a senior police officer said.
Eight spent 9 mm cartridges were seen scattered near Mr. Mohan's blood-swamped body, which lay spread-eagled on a sidewalk near a popular shopping mall. There were no other casualties, primarily because the normally crowded road was nearly empty as the nation was on Poya (full moon) holiday, for the second time in a month — popularly defined as blue moon.
High up on hit list
The gunning down of the Mr. Mohan, described as one who was "very high" on the LTTE's hit-list, was literally the `once in a blue moon' strike as he "was truly feared by the Tigers and escaped several attempts in the east," a former militant said. As Mr. Mohan "was very fastidious about his personal security, the murder in broad daylight is shocking."
The slaying, he said, is seen as "a clear indication that the LTTE is not for a peaceful negotiated settlement." Concerned over the continued attacks on anti-LTTE operatives, defence analysts said the Government was "using them and abandoning them to appease the LTTE to come back to talks."
The Norwegian facilitators on Wednesday cautioned that Sri Lanka's "frozen war" was "starting to melt at the edges." Oslo also saw the declining security situation — a fallout of the rebellion by the LTTE's former military commander, V. Muralitharan — as the "bigger impediment" to restarting the stalled peace talks, compared to "differences in the agenda between the Government and the Tigers."
Pre-emptive strike
Today's murder brought Sri Lanka's most-feared `Black July' month — which saw a suicide-bomb attack on July 7 and a massacre near Colombo last Sunday — to a bloody end. Military analysts see in the killing of Mr. Mohan "a pre-emptive strike by the Tigers, as he would have played a key role when fighting resumes." The LTTE has not commented on the killing.
Mohan, who joined the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) in 1983, left the group in 1994, and emerged as a key anti-LTTE operative. More recently, he was reportedly linked to the military's Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRPs) before the February 2002 ceasefire agreement (CFA) was signed. Defence sources viewed the hits on LTTE leaders by the Deep Penetration Units of the LRRP as a key factor for the Tigers to enter talks in 2002. After the CFA several "Tamil informants" linked to the LRRP, were shot dead in Colombo and in the east.
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