Word: prabhakaran
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...waged a guerilla war against the Sri Lankan government in their attempt to establish an independent state - which they call Eelam - for minority Hindu Tamils in the north and east of the island nation. Suicide bombings and assassinations have been the group's calling cards, all orchestrated by Velupillai Prabhakaran, who founded the insurgent group in the mid-70s. Now, a months-long push by the Sri Lankan military appears to have mortally wounded the group, considered by the United States a terrorist organization, trapping the Tigers (and thousands of Tamil civilians) on a narrow strip of land...
...teenager, Prabhakaran either dropped out of school or was suspended. Either way, he went on to found a small rebel group called the Tamil New Tigers in 1972. Three years later, Prabhakaran assassinated the mayor of Jaffna, a northern Sri Lankan province, by walking up to him outside of a Hindu temple and shooting him at close-range. In 1976, the Tamil New Tigers were redubbed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a name it holds to this day. (Watch TIME's video of civilians caught in the Sri Lankan civil...
...LTTE attack left 13 Sri Lankan police officers dead. The government responded with a violent crackdown on Tamils that killed hundreds, yet caused thousands worldwide to side with Prabhakaran. The event marked the official beginning of the civil...
...even if Prabhakaran could get out, few countries would be willing to accept the LTTE leader. "It is very unlikely that any country will offer asylum to Prabhakaran, as he has an indictment and arrest warrant against him in India and Sri Lanka," Jayasekara says. The Indian government has accused Prabhakaran of ordering the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. "It is more likely that Prabhakaran will get his children out of Sri Lanka to provide inspirational support in the future. The entire family of [Prabhakaran's wife] Madhivadini is in Denmark, and the children will have...
...Tigers would be unlikely to recover from the loss of Prabhakaran, who has led by personality cult and has no second-in-command or designated successor. "LTTE's center of gravity is Prabhakaran," says Gunaratna. "The LTTE will factionalize, fight each other and die after Prabhakaran...