The report of Duwaraka, the daughter of the late Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader V Prabhakaran, her husband K Dhayabara Raj along with their three children, apparently departed from the Mandapam camp covertly in an unauthorised boat to their hometown almost two years ago has shocked security and intelligence personnel.
According to an English daily, State authorities, Tamil Nadu officials have recently discovered that a couple, suspected to have been associated with the intelligence wing of the LTTE, managed to flee from the Mandapam camp to Sri Lanka. This came to their knowledge when a head count was done after a group of South Koreans and a Bulgarian escaped from the camp. They realised that the couple and her family leaving for Sri Lanka only after a video that surfaced on social media in Sri Lanka, featuring the escaped woman identified as Duwaraka, who is believed to be the daughter of the deceased LTTE leader Prabhakaran. The couple are identified as K Dhayabara Raj and his wife Udayakala. In 2016, Dhayabara Raj was held in the Tiruchy special camp and subsequently went on an indefinite fast, alleging the unlawful confinement of his family at the special quarantine camp in Mandapam, Ramanathapuram. Responding to his plea, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ordered the state to transfer Raj, who is wanted by Interpol, to the Mandapam camp without round-the-clock security supervision.
The DT Next English daily says “The two were supposed to be in Mandapam under the watch of the revenue department. But a video of Udayakala has now surfaced. In the video, she was described as Duwaraka, the daughter of the late LTTE leader Prabhakaran. It looks like she has launched a political party there in the Island nation,”.
It has been alleged that the two were soliciting significant sums of money from local Tamils in Sri Lanka, offering to secure the release of their relatives held by the Sri Lankan forces following the conclusion of the civil war. Tamil Nadu police only became aware of their escape after the recent emergence of the video.
A leading Tamil daily Dinamalar says Udhaykala is a resident of Savagacheri in Sri Lanka and her husband Dhayabara Raj is from Kaladi Nagar in Vaarivalaivu and studied engineering at Peradeniya University.
Both married and moved to Jaffna and were working for LTTE’s intelligence wing. After the elimination of LTTE, they came to Tamil Nadu. According to the daily quoting local sources “that she is not the daughter of Prabakaran. She is fooling people and she is trying to float All People Party by regrouping all LTTE cadres. She is claiming that she had met Prabakaran’s wife and found that they are alive including her daughter Duwaraka. Udhayakala and her husband have been accused of cheating people by collecting funds from public to the tune of several crores”.
Tamil Nadu police have been focusing their entire energies on political witch-hunting of ruling party’s opponents and arresting them like anti-social and terrorist elements but leaving a big hole in their intelligence gathering.
Earlier, on September 1, news with an image that took everybody’s surprise and shocked. A former LTTE operative, now a leader of the Crusaders for Democracy Party (Jananayaga Poraligal Katchi) in Sri Lanka, visited the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial in Sriperumbudur. His purpose was to “pay respect to Dhanu,” the suicide bomber responsible for assassinating the former Prime Minister along with one-eyed Sivarasan. Tulasi Amaran shared photographs of this visit on his social media page on 30 August 2023. In his posts, he claimed to have paid tribute to “Dhanu Akka,” noting that she also lost her life on May 21, 1991, in Sriperumbudur. The caption accompanying the images read, “Dhanu Akka died in Sriperumbudur. Paid floral tribute by Crusaders after 32 years.” It is feared that he could have visited the memorial on August 20, Rajiv’s birth anniversary.
On February 14 2023, Pazha Nedumaran, an 89-year-old supporter of the LTTE told media in Thanjavur “I wish to convey that Prabhakaran is still alive and in good health. I am pleased to inform the Tamil diaspora of this fact.
This could potentially address all the speculations and queries surrounding him. Prabhakaran will soon personally announce his next plan for the liberation of Tamil Eelam.” Nedumaran appealed to Tamils worldwide to “come forward to welcome” Prabhakaran.
If we view things with this background, there have been efforts to revive LTTE in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka which faces severe economic and political crisis. In Tamil Nadu, there have been voices for separate State demand which is picking up speed under the Dravidian model government led by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
If any chance both the banned LTTE and secessionist forces join hands, it will endanger the country’s security and stability.
