C4 whistle-blower’s father among those killed with EPRLF’s Padmanabha in Chennai

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Mohamed Mihlar, the father of Channel’s 4’s whistle-blower Mohamed Mihlar Mohamed Hanzeer (aka Maulana), had been among the top Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) cadres killed by the LTTE in Chennai, India in June 1990, well-informed sources told The Island.

Hanzeer was about eight years old when an LTTE hit squad operating in South India stormed the EPRLF safe house at an apartment complex in Kodambakkam, Tamil Nadu on June 19, 1990, a week after the LTTE resumed Eelam War II after killing 600 policemen.

Authoritative security sources confirmed Mohamed Mihlar’s involvement with the EPRLF that governed the then temporarily merged North-East Province following the first PC polls.

EPRLF leader K. Padmanabha and Mihlar were among 13 Sri Lankans killed on that day. The gunmen killed two other persons while fleeing the scene of the mass killings. Some of those who were charged over the June 19, 1990 killings were also implicated in the high-profile LTTE suicide bomb attack that claimed the life of former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi. The LTTE assassinated Gandhi on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu during an election rally.

Sources said that the C4 source’s relationship with former LTTE cadre Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan aka Pilleyan (now a State Minister in the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government) had to be examined against the backdrop of the operations undertaken by Indian trained terrorist groups here and in India. Sources said that the EPRLF leaders along with quite a number of cadres and their families had sought refuge in India after the New Delhi installed administration of Chief Minister Varatharaja Perumal collapsed in the wake of Indian withdrawal in March 1990.

Ex-MP Sarath Kongahage, who is among those featured in the C4 documentary, told The Island that a thorough investigation was required to ascertain the truth.

“We seem to be unable to get away from Sri Lanka’s horrid past,” Kongahage, who served as Sri Lanka Ambassador in Germany said. Kongahage urged the government to take up C4’s challenge to conduct proper investigation not only on Easter Sunday carnage but the origins of terrorism here as well.

Hanzeer, who was with Pilleyan, is seeking political asylum in Switzerland, having left the country allegedly with the help of a doctor attached to the National Hospital now living in Pakistan. Sources said that the doctor had fled the country after authorities investigated him for links with the suicide bomber Zharan Hashim’s group.