Jubiliation switched sides when the Sri Lankan Air Force killed the LTTE political wing leader, S. P. Tamilselvan, earlier this month. It is a severe blow to the LTTE’s morale, which was high after the recent combined air and ground attack on the Sri Lankan air base at Anuradhapura.

According to the Sri Lankan government, the killing of Tamilselvan was facilitated by precise intelligence and aerial surveillance. The government vowed that it would kill other LTTE leaders “one by one”. Its defence secretary even observed, “This is just a message that we know where their leaders are. I know the locations of all the leaders, that if we want we can take them one by one, so they must change their hideouts. When the time comes only, we take them one by one.” Undoubtedly, the chief of the LTTE’s political wing was one of the prized targets for the government.

Also known as “Dinesh”, Suppayya Paramu Tamilselvan joined the LTTE in 1984 at 17 and passed out in the fourth batch of the LTTE training in India. He served as one of the bodyguards of the LTTE chief Prabhakaran and was his close confidante. Later, he was a key figure in fighting the Indian Peace Keeping Force during 1987-89, especially in the Jaffna peninsula. He also took part in a key operation to overrun the military base located at Elephant Pass in 1991. He, however, had to wait for another nine years to witness the fall of the strategic Pass to the LTTE. While participating in a campaign to overrun an army base in Pooneryn in 1993, Tamilselvan suffered a leg injury, which made him dependent on a walking stick. Since then, he was unable to participate in active military operations and was put in charge of the political wing.

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