Elusive Prabha, will he be caught alive?

The army believes that its hunt for LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, believed to be trapped in the ‘No-Fire Zone’, would yield the expected results during the course of this week but speculations have been raised as to whether the guerilla leader has already fled the country.
Army Commander Sarath Fonseka last week said that the security forces knew where Prabhakaran was and he would soon be captured.

When contacted by this newspaper last week, army spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said what the army chief meant in making that observation was that Prabhakaran could not possibly have escaped since the troops have confined the outfit to a very narrow land stretch.
He clarified that the army was not aware of the exact location of Prabhakaran’s hideout. “Had we known the exact location, we would have destroyed him by now”, he said.

Asked whether it was likely that the troops would capture the Tiger leader in the course of next week, the army spokesman answered in the affirmative.

In the meantime, Brigadier Shavindra Silva, Officer-Commanding the 58 Division was quoted as saying: “”Prabhakaran, who is present in the no-fire zone along with his son Charles Anthony, Tigers’ intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Sea Tiger chief Soosai, might have retained a submarine to escape from the island”.

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