The Ceylon News

Killinochi, April 24: Cornered LTTE chief V Prabhakaran, who is still holed up in a small strip of land in embattled north, may flee from the island using a submarine, a top Sri Lankan army official said Friday.

"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," Brigadier Shavendra Desilva, the General-Officer-Commanding 58 Division, said.

"This was revealed by LTTE's former spokesman Daya Master, who surrendered to the army this week," Brigadier Desilva told a select group of reporters visiting LTTE's former political capital Killinochi in the embattled north.

"Prabhakaran is only supported by Amman and Soosai and other Tamil Tiger leaders will leave him if they will get an opportunity," Desilva quoted Master as saying.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Bahila while speaking with a news channel on Friday stated that because rescuing civilians was the focus of the government, the Army had not been ordered yet to attack the area where the LTTE chief was hiding.

On Prabhakaran's proposed escape via sea along with his son and two top aides, the minister said that Prabhakaran could not escape as all escape routes had been blocked.

Daya Master and George, a close aide of slain Tiger political wing head S P Thamilchelvan, gave themselves up to the army at Putumathalan in the no-fire zone on April 22.

A naval blockade was put around northern Mullaittivu close to the areas where LTTE cadres still had access to the sea.

"613 LTTE militants were killed in the first week of April," he said.