Interview with Inyabarathy of the Karuna's Group
Iniyabarathy, the dare - devil commander of the Karuna’s group, who was reported dead in the LTTE websites and Tamil newspapers published in Colombo and Jaffna, spoke to the Asian Tribune yesterday. Twenty-four-year-old Iniyabarathy said jokingly: " Aiyah ( Sir ) contrary to reports I am still alive and healthy . Not dead yet and will never be afraid of death too. "
Recently Two cadres of Karuna’s group , Thuraisingham Chandrakumar alias Puhalventhan ( 21 ) and Sinnathamby Arunkumar alias Gnanatheepan ( 26 ), were captuted on 05 December and were paraded on 12 December, before pro-LTTE media personnel at the Thenakam guest house in the LTTE controlled Karadiyanaru, in the Batticalao district.
These two captured cadres told the media that the LTTE shot and killed Iniyabarathy and three other operatives last Monday.” (05 December) In his interview with the “Asian Tribune” Iniyabarathy dismissed the statements published in the LTTE media as propaganda. He said : "This is a propaganda exercise by the LTTE. We know about their games because we too were in the same outfit until March 2004. This not something new to us or to them."
He added: It is the common practice to put pressure on captured prisoners with threats and coach them to say whatever you want to say. They cannot speak their mind or tell the truth because of threats to their lives. They tend to behave like parrots in a cage" .
Iniyabarathy said, "Let me explain the whole incident for the benefit of your readers.
" We came to know that Vanni Tiger group has established a new army base in Kanchikudichchan Aru, near the Pannai Mali close to a small pond located in the area.
" We came to know that they were training underage children all under 15 years of age and nearly 40 of them were held forcibly and given training there.
" Then I decided to attack the base and save those abducted underage children from the grip of the Vanni group.
" On 04th December, I dispatched a 7 -- member group to locate the place which was situated in the midst of the thick jungles of Amaparai and collect all the information available.
" To go to the spot from Manthoddam, our people has to cross the Nediyakanaththai Aru and the crossing from one end to other is about 100 meters and it was a very deep at this point.
" Our group after reaching the other end located the training camp and came back crossing the river. In the river banks they had their meals and left evidence of their presence on the spot by littering paper wrappings and banana leaves unintentionally.
" On the 5th December I led a tem of about 40 cadres to attack the camp and rescue the underage children who were forcibly given military training in the middle of the mosquito infested thick jungles of Amparai.
" In the meantime the scouting team of the Vanni group which crossed the river and came over to the Manthoddam side found out the traces of the very recent movements of our cadres in that area.
" Now I understand they too must have decided to lay ambush and wait for us in the Manthoddam and on the opposite side. There must be more than 50 Vanni cadres in the ambush waiting for us.
" I led 40 of our cadres to the Vanni camp and when half of our cadres had crossed the river and was on the other side, they started spraying bullets on us.
"The exchange of small arms fire lasted for more than two hours and two of our cadres Suman and Thevan were killed and I received a gunshot injury near my hip. The bullet did not pierce through by the flesh but it just grazed me leaving a minor injury on the hip . It was nothing to worry - just a minor injury.
"On the LTTE side 5 of their cadres were killed.
" Meantime , those cadres who crossed the other side of the river, managed to cross back and joined us when we made a tactical withdrawal but, at that point of time I clearly heard Puhalventhan and Gnanatheepan failed to cross the river and were calling at the top of their voice for the direction and after sometime their shouts died down.
"Their shouting helped the Vanni group to locate and arrest them alive. Puhalventhan joined the LTTE in 1997 and Gnanatheepan in 1995.
" In 2005 April these two cadres along with thousands of others were returned to their families by Karuna Amman when he withdrew from attacking the Vanni Tigers attack of 10 April 2004.
"But later these two along with dozens of others joined us as they were continuously harassed by the Vanni group.
"After joining us, the two cadres were involved in more than half a dozens of successful campaign against the Vanni group and each of them would have taken their revenge on the Vanni group by killing more than ten of their cadres. "
Iniyabarathy said : "I feel sorry that we couldn't rescue such good cadres . I feel sad that they were caught by the Vanni group and harassed and tortured to speak against me and Karuna. "
Denying LTTE reports, Iniyabarathy said that he has never met in his life Maithripala Srisena, Aththaula and Douglas Devananda. He said: "Though I like to meet them out of curiosity, what benefit will I get by meeting them?" he asked
He said that he was arrested by the police on a tip off given by the LTTE in May and was remanded. According to the law of the land, at the end of 3 months and 10 days, as pointed out by his lawyer to the High court judge of Amparai, he was released on bail, when his case came up for hearing . He said he was released as there was no provision in the law to keep him under remand after the expiration of three months and 10 days and no body helped to get him released from the custody.
Iniyabarathy pointed out the news report in the media, including the ‘Asian Tribune,’ regarding the killings of Mrs. Yogarasa Yogeswary, 26, and Thurairasa Vathany, 17 were not accurate.
He said that Ganeshpullai Yogarasa alias Santhiran, the husband of the slain Yogarasa Yogeswary, was reported to be a womanizer and had two or three women as his keeps. On 08 December Mrs. Yogarasa Yogeswary was in her sister Vathany’s house. Santhiran went there and assaulted both the girls and shot and killed them before surrendering to the Vanni group.
That time Puhalventhan, the brother of the slain ladies was in the custody of Vanni Tigers . When Santhiran surrendered to the Vanni Tigers to avoid being arrested by the Sri lanka police, they hit upon the idea of exploiting these deaths to cover up and promote the LTTE as good boys. Their publicity gimmick was to make the two slain ladies Nattupattalar (patriots) and conduct a public funeral to honor them.
The people of the area who knew the truth refused to participate in the funeral ceremony conducted by the Vanni Tigers.
”Finally," he said, "I wish to categorically deny any role in the bombing of the Akkaraipattu mosque and also I will not comment on the whereabouts of Karuna Amman. This is another ploy by the Vanni group to accuse Karuna of hiding in India. We will not divulge any details about his whereabouts but I wish to confirm that we are being led by him and we will work under his guidance and direction only. "
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