Thaindian News

Colombo, May 4 (ANI): The Sri Lankan Army has reportedly demolished the ancestral home of the late Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, inviting criticism from local Tamil lawmakers. The house was situated in the Valvettithurai area of the northern Jaffna peninsula. “The Sri Lankan Army was guarding this place. They were not allowing anyone to visit the area. They have been demolishing the house bit by bit for the past few weeks,” former Tamil Member of Parliament, Sivajilingam, was quoted by the BBC, as saying. “I have written to the president (Mahinda Rajapaksa) about this. But when I went back there [on Wednesday] the house was reduced to rubble,” Sivajilingam said recently. Prabhakaran spent his childhood at the house with his siblings. His father, Thiruvenkadam Velupillai, died earlier this year and was cremated in Valvettithurai. The house was badly damaged during army operations of 1987. The rebel leader’s family had left it four years earlier. The end of fighting in the north has attracted thousands of tourists from the south, and for many Prabhakaran’s house was among the must-see attractions in Jaffna. “Thousands of people were coming and seeing the house everyday. This might have angered the authorities,” Sivajilingam said. The Sri Lankan army, however, has declined that it has demolished the house. “It is not correct. We completely deny this allegation,” army spokesman Prasad Samarasinge said. “We have not destroyed any house of Prabhakaran in the country. The army has not done a thing like that,” he added. According to the report, Tamil sources say the military wants to rid Sri Lanka of any memory of the LTTE movement. They claim a number of Tamil Tiger war graves have also been destroyed over the past year. (ANI)