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Thoppigala captured: Colombo

B. Muralidhar Reddy

Norwegian Ambassador meets Tamilselvan

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa declared on Wednesday that the military had captured Thoppigala, the last remaining pocket of influence of the LTTE in the east that has been under its effective control since 1994. The LTTE maintained total silence on the development.

The announcement came after the military said its commandos and soldiers had reached the “Baron’s Camp” of the Tigers in Thoppigala in the morning. “With this victory, troops have captured the ‘nerve centre’ of the LTTE terrorists in their last stronghold in the Eastern province”, it said.

A spokesperson of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said fleeing cadres from the “nerve centre” have slipped into the thick jungles of Thoppigala and it would take a few more days and operations before the whole of east is declared free of Tigers’ influence.

The “nerve centre” of the Tigers in its last remaining base in the east fell after four months of intense battles between the two sides. The offensive of the military coupled with numerous aerial raids by the air force appears to have worked.

A statement made by Mr. Rajapaksa asserted that the east is completely under the control of the Government.

“I join the people in offering tribute and all good wishes to the members of the armed forces, police and Special Task Force who, through their participation in the humanitarian exercise to free the people of the East from the clutches of terrorism, captured the last stronghold of the terrorists located at Thoppigala”, he said.

For months now, the Rajapaksa regime has been proclaiming that it is determined to “liberate” the east from the clutches of the Tigers.

Separately, the military said it killed at least five LTTE cadres along the Forward Defences at Muhamalai, Jaffna, on Tuesday.

In another development, Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar met the LTTE’s political head S.P. Tamilselvan in Kilinochchi in the morning. The Government, which has discouraging diplomats from travelling to the north for several weeks now, permitted the envoy to meet LTTE leaders after he made a plea that it was his “farewell” call.

The LTTE said the meeting focused on the “current political, security and humanitarian situation” in the “north-east”.

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