Colombo:
Sri Lanka today claimed to have found the slain Tamil Tiger chief Vellupilai Prabhakaran's personal gun and body armour, seven months after overrunning the last LTTE bastion in the decisive battle at Nanthaikadal lagoon off the northern coast.
The arms used by Prabhakaran were found buried 15 feet under the ground at Vellamulliwaikkal area in Mulaittivu along with scores of suicide kits and several anti-aircraft guns. Senior DIG for Vavuniya Nimal Lewke confirmed that the weapon a M-16A2 with a grenade launcher that was found was used by the LTTE leader as his personal weapon, local media reports said today.
Prabhakaran was killed by Lankan Army at Nanthikadal lagoon in Mullaitivu on May 18 last year. The gun had been found buried with his body armour and as many as 125 suicide kits, 50 mortar bombs, 25 anti-aircraft guns. Lankan security authorities continue to scour the northern countryside for weapons cache of the LTTE.
The specialised Army units have had lot of success in locating the weapons of Tamil Tigers. While retreating LTTE had buried most of their heavy weapons in underground caches which the Lankans are now searching for. The arms and is now in the process of being transported to the Vavuniya Senior DIG's Office. The search operations were conducted with Terrorist Investigation Division in Vellamullavaikkal area in Mullaitivu, the Defence Ministry said. A staggering 2000kgs of explosives were among the recovered haul of war material, it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the use of Information Technology played a major role in the defeat of LTTE. A good example of this could be observed during the recently concluded operations in the North, he told a gathering here yesterday. "Through proper IT integration, we were able to provide live video feeds of the battlefront captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles not just to on-field commanders, but to the key decision makers in the hierarchy up including the Sri Lankan President," he said.
This was a critical tool in achieving success against the militants while ensuring the safety of the civilian population trapped by the LTTE, he added.
"If something like this can be achieved in a combat situation, there should be no barriers to the proper exploitation of IT in the private sector," Rajapaksa said