Colombo, August 07: From his secret hideouts in South East Asia, Selvarasa Pathmanathan better known as ‘KP’ controlled a global network that supplied weapons to the now vanquished LTTE which doggedly fought for a Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka till recently.
Kumaran Pathmanathan, a close confidant of slain LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, is wanted by Interpol in connection with several cases, including the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Pathmanathan was arrested in Thailand on Wednesday. Known to have possessed passports of several countries and in-charge of several of LTTE’s illegal businesses like drug trafficking and smuggling, Pathmanathan was in direct contact with Prabhakaran till the ruthless guerrilla leader died in May.
Born as Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam on April 6, 1955 in the town of Kankesanthurai in Jaffna district, Pathmanathan has impeccable command over Tamil, English, French, Sinhalese and even Thai.
The arrest of Pathmanathan, the man behind the strong international network of the LTTE, will be a big breakthrough for the Sri Lankan Government which was exploring ways to break the strong Diaspora network of the LTTE, which stood by the rebel outfit for long.
Intelligence agencies believe that he had bank accounts in London, Frankfurt Denmark, Athens and Australia funds from which were used to procure arms and ammunition for the LTTE for nearly three decades. Pathmanthan, who is known to have bases in Thailand and Cambodia, has been associated with LTTE since its inception in early 1970s and was appointed as chief of its International Division just months before curtains came down on the decades-old civil war.
He procured modern hardware, paid for them through secret bank accounts, and shipped them to the rebels using a merchant shipping network operated by the “KP Department”, known as the “sea pigeons”.
Pathmanthan is also said to have set up a number of lucrative businesses in Thailand and established a state-of-the-art boatyard in the country, which manufactured over a dozen different boats, including mini-submarines and suicide boats.
He allegedly had links to drug and human smuggling, procurements of illegal arms and details of the illegal arms dealers, money laundering and all other underworld activities spread around the world.
After the death of Prabhakaran, Pathmanathan declared himself as the leader of LTTE and vowed to achieve Tamil Eelam through non-violent methods. But, a section of the Diaspora and the LTTE were against his decision and were even angry about his confession that Prabhakaran is no more.
–Agencies