Other Tamil Eelam Groups
(sethu)
TNT - Tamil New Tigers
EROS - Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students
EPRLF - Eelam Peoples' Revolutionary Liberation Front
TELO - Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation
PLOTE - People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam
TEA - Tamil Eelam Army
TENA - Tamil Eelam National Army
ENLF - Eelam National Liberation Front
TELA - Tamil Eelam Liberation Army
TELE - Tamil Eelam Liberation Extremists
TERO - Tamil Eelam Revolutionary Organisation
TERPLA - Tamil Eelam Revolutionary People's Liberation Army
RFTE - Red Front of Tamil Eelamists
TELG - Tamil Eelam Liberation Guerrillas
NLFTE - National Liberation Front of Tamil Eelam
IFTA - Ilankai Freedom Tamil Army
TEDF - Tamil Eelam Defence Front
TPSO - Tamil People's Security Organisation
TPSF - Tamil People's Security Front
TEC - Tamil Eelam Commando
TELF - Tamil Eelam Liberation Front
TEEF - Tamil Eelam Eagles Front
RW - Revolutionary Warriors
GATE - Guerrilla Army of Tamil Eelam
RCG - Red Crescent Guerrillas
EM - Eagle Movement
SRSL - Socialist Revolutionary Social Liberation
TEBM - Tamil Eelam Blood Movement
TPCU - Tamil People's Command Unit
ELT - Eelam Liberation Tigers
ELDF - Eelam Liberation Defence Front
RELO - Revolutionary Eelam Liberation Organisation
TESS - Tamil Eelam Security Service
PLP - People's Liberation Party
TPDF - Tamil People's Democratic Front
TELC - Tamil Eelam Liberation Cobras
TS - Three Stars
ENDLF - Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front
Tamil New Tigers (TNT)
The TNT was started by V. Pirabhakaran on 22nd May, 1972, soon after the promulgation of the Republican Constitution it became the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on May 5th, 1976. Velupillai Prabhakaran was born on 26.11.1954 , to T.Velupillai, a Malaysian of Tamil origin, who was a district land officer in Jaffna. V. Pirabhakaran was deeply traumatised by seeing one of his uncles burnt alive during the language riots of 1958. Pirabhakaran gradually emerged as a militant leader with a cult of personality in the militant movement. The bitter internal rivalries that were to mark the Tamil struggle in later years were absent then and Pirabhakaran, along with others attended training camps organised by EROS functionaries. In 1972, V. Prabhakaran sailed to India with others including Thangadurai and Kuttimani. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1974. The first major strike of the TNT was the assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna. On July 27, 1975 Alfred Duriappah, the Tamil Mayor of Jaffna and chief organiser of the SLFP in the region, went to the Varadaraja Perumal temple at Ponnalai in Jaffna. Four young men waiting for him at the temple attacked him as soon as he got out of his car. One of them opened fire from point blank range. The mayor tried to escape but collapsed in a pool of blood. The assailants jumped into Duriappah's car and sped away. On 05.03.1976 V. Pirabhakaran led a raid on the State run People's Bank, Puttur and escaped with half a million rupees in cash and jewelry worth Rs.2 lakhs after holding the employees at gun point. Soon after this, V. Pirabhakaran founded the LTTE on 5th May, 1976.
EELAM REVOLUTIONARY ORGANISATION OF STUDENTS or EELAM REVOLUTIONARY ORGANISATIONS (EROS)
Is perhaps the only militant group today which works in collaboration with the LTTE. This group was formed in London in 1975 by Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy, a Sri Lankan Tamil who was residing in Britain. The EROS became known only when its student wing-the General Union of Eelam Students (GUES) was subsequently formed in Madras. The EROS drew its cadres mainly from Batticaloa and Amparai districts in Eastern Sri Lanka. It was the first Tamil group which attempted to establish a close working relationship with the Muslims of Eastern Sri Lanka, who constitute the second largest ethnic group in the eastern province next to Tamils. In late 1975, they planned a four point agenda to win over the Muslims of the eastern province. The agenda, inter-alia, envisaged that the EROS would work with Muslims to settle problems of the other groups with Muslims and to have plans for military action when the necessity arises;
In 1976, EROS embarked upon a programme of training by opening a militant training camp in Vavuniya, Northern Sri Lanka. Subsequently, EROS and LTTE reached an agreement and used this camp as their main base for military training. V. Prabhakaran, received his initial training at this camp. Meanwhile, the EROS leadership in London struck a relationship with Syed Hameed, the PLO Representative in U.K, who later arranged training for EROS cadres, as well as LTTE cadres, in Lebanon. In May 1976, after a visit to Beirut by an EROS representative, contact was established with the PLO leader Abu Jehad, (who was subsequently killed by the Israelis). A message was sent to Vavuniya to dispatch cadres for advanced training to Lebanon. EROS and LTTE trained together with the Palestinians in late 1976 and 1977. Around this time, signs of dissent had developed between Uma Maheswaran, the Chairman of the LTTE who was close to the TULF leadership, and V. Prabhakaran, who was an important member of the group. EROS wanted to defuse the tension and sent Uma Maheswaran for training to Lebanon in 1977. In 1980, EROS and its student wing GUES split and the EPRLF was formed.
EROS:- Eelam Revolutionary Organisers (EROS) were reported to be conducting two camps in the districts of Ramnad and Pasumpon Muthuramalingam districts. There were 8 male trainees in these camps which were imparting Physical Training and Arms Training.
TAMIL EELAM ARMY (TEA) On 23.12.1985, a jeep belonging to TEA accidently hit girl students of Kasturba Gandhi Kanya Gurukulam at Vedaranyam while they were proceeding from their school towards a temple. The students sustained simple injuries. A case was registered. The driver was arrested. People were agitated. TEA, EPRLF and PLOTE representatives attended a condolence meeting and expressed grief. But the public were sore that the top leader of the TEA did not attend the meeting. A condemnatory procession was taken out and when the processioners attacked a settlement of TEA cadres, the cadres opened fire in the air to scare away the processionists Meenambakkam Airport Bomb Blast There was a bomb blast at the Madras International Airport on the 3rd. August 1984 in which over 30 persons were killed and several others were injured. There was an estimated damage to the Airport of over Rs. 50 lakhs. Initially thought to be the planted by the Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence agency, with a view to discrediting the Tamil militants at the behest of Sri Lankan Government. But the Crime Branch/CID investigation revealed the involvement of a small group called TEA (Tamil Eelam Army). Involved were: (1) the TEA Chief "Panegoda" Maheswaran (so called because of his daring escape from the maximum security prison at Panegoda in Sri Lanka) who was a chemical engineering graduate from London University and an expert in explosives. (2) Vigneswara Raja, retired Collector of Customs in Sri Lanka; (3) Thambi Raja, a Sri Lankan national; (4) Vijayakumar, and (5) Loganathan, both Indian nationals working for Air Lanka; and (6) Chandrakumar, a police constable attached to the Airport police station. The objective of the TEA was not to blast Madras airport, but to plant a bomb on the Air Lanka plane leaving Madras for Colombo, with the timing so adjusted as to have the bomb explode in Colombo airport. The plan misfired because of the delay in the take off of the Air Lanka aircraft. Vigneswara Raja, Thambi Raja, Vijayakumar, Loganathan and Chandrakumar were arrested immediately, while Maheswaran absconded. During the course of the investigation from a suburban house in Madras a similar timing device was seized apart from 100 kg of gelatine sticks, detonator wires, chemicals like red phosphorous and sodium metal, crystal capacitors, 1 kg of potassium cyanide and currency worth Rs. 200,000 (both Indian and Foreign). It was apparent that the time-bomb used at the airport was manufactured in this house, and this was corroborated by the arrested Sri Lankan nationals. The members of the TEA who were Kadiresan, Thambiraja, Sri, Ramu and Dhandapani planned during the period February to July, 1984 to cause bomb blast at Colombo to cause harm to the Sri Lankan Army as a retaliatory act to the atrocities caused by the Sri Lankan Army to the Tamil civilians of Northern Sri Lanka. During the course of the mission, the TEA purchased explosives in the form of gelatine from Palayamkottai. The gelatine was purchased from National Trading company on three occasions during March to July, 1984. The TEA had also purchased detonators from the same shop. The shop was a licensed explosive shop which sold explosives to quarry contractors. The TEA then stored the explosives in a house at Anna Nagar, Madras. The original plan was to have Kadiresan board the Air Lanka Flight from Madras to Colombo on 31.7.84 alongwith two suit cases filled with explosives equiped with a timing device. However, on 31.7.84 at about pm when Kadiresan got the suitcases weighed at the checking counter, the weight was found to be in excess by 35 Kgs. Since he did not have money to pay the extra charges, he cancelled his plane ticket and came back with the two suitcases. On 2.8.84 at about 6 p.m., Kadiresan again went to the Meenambakkam airport, this time to board the Air Lanka flight UL 122 to Colombo. Kadiresan got the baggage checked in and paid excess baggage fare. Each of the two boxes filled with explosives weighed 55 kgs. To misguide the investigators, Kadiresan got his name changed in the passenger manifest from Kadiresan to Jadiresan. The two boxes were sent to the Customs hall for checking. Since a Kadiresan did not come forward to get the suitcases checked, the flight left without the accused as well as the boxes. The accused went away from the airport leaving the suitcases abandoned in the Customs hall. Realizing that the time bomb will explode at the airport, the accused made anonymous call at about 2210 hrs. to the Security manager that the bombs were kept in the two boxes. Another call was given by the accused at 2245 hrs. However, while the two boxes were in the process of being removed, they exploded at 2250 hrs. After the crackdown on it in the wake of the blast at the Meenambakkam Airport, the TEA has thinned down and finally faded away in India. Other assorted organisations were also conducting their camps in Tamil Nadu such as Tamil Eelam Army (TEA) - 2 camps, 31 trainees; TELA -Kanthan group ( 3 camps, 117 trainees); TELA-Rajan group (1 camp, 10 trainees); RELO ( 1 camp, 13 trainees; NLFT (1 camp, 2 trainees); ECRP (1 camp, 4 trainees) and TMPP ( 1 camp, 6 trainees). As per the enclosure, the total number of trainees of various Sri Lankan Tamil militant organisations in their training camps being conducted in Tamil Nadu was 3179 males and 184 females, totally 3363 cadres.
Tamil Eelam National Army (TENA)
The Tamil Eelam National Army (TENA) was organised by Bagirathan Ravi in Ettara, near Tiruchirapalli and later moved them to Karur. Bagirathan Ravi was the son of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader, Amirthalingam. The TULF were a non-violent political organisation. Like other militant organizations the TENA recieved training from the Indian RAW. During their training in India they had 1 camp, and 25 trainees.
During March 1985 TELA split into two factions, one led by Rajan and the other by Kanthan. Towards the end of March 1985, one Lion of TELA(Rajan) group fired a round from a revolver in a confrontation with Susilan and two others who had left TELA to throw in their lot with PLOT.
On 28.03.1985, seven members of TELA went to Pattukottai from Madurai and one of them fired a shot with his revolver to scare three cadres of TELA who had earlier defected to PLOTE and who were then collecting funds in Pattukottai bus stand.
A daring incident of abduction and blackmail was reported from Madurai on 9.11.85 involving one Naresh, son of a Government coroner in Sri Lanka. This youth was abducted by some members of the TELA (Rajan) group and kept captive near Sirumalai. Not content with taking away 25 sovereigns of gold jewellery in his possession, his abductors also sent ransom notes demanding one lakh rupees for his release. Police swooped on their camp and secured his release and also arrested 17 persons.
Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF)
During November 1985 four militant groups namely Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE). Eelam People Revolutionary Liberation Front(EPRLF) & Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Tamil (ERO) joined together to form a front called Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF). This union was short lived.
In December, 1985 the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and TELO developed mis-understanding among themselves and fought each other both in Sri Lanka and India. On December 23rd., 1985 there was a bomb explosion at the residence of Anton Balasingam the Spokesmen of LTTE, at Madras. Shortly before dawn, a bomb with a timer device went off in the open terrace above the bedroom where Balasingam's nephew was sleeping...Balasingam and his Australian wife Adele were in another room and escaped with injuries..Balasingam said he suspected Sri Lankan Government agents. The TULF and PLOTE blamed MOSSAD. The Police suspected the involvement of TELO Group.
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