He was then elevated to a Brigadier and appointed as the 55th Division Commander and was tasked to breach LTTE defences in Mugahamali in Jaffna in a time when it was considered un-breachable. Having achieved this feat, the 55th Division, under the command of Prasanna, marched appox 100km linking up with Wanni front at Elephant Pass to re open the A-9 and more importantly clearing almost all the sea tiger bases covering the Eastern Costal line starting from Nagarkovil right down to Mullative.
Chundikulam and Chalai are some of the main sea tiger basins that fell to the 55th Division. Like all the others, the 55th Division too have made many sacrifices to eradicate terrorism and rescue innocent civilians and our country from terror.
Prasanna started on his path to leadership at Ananda College, where he led the College football team to a Championship victory in his year as captain.
He initially joined the Sri Lanka army in 1982 and rose through the ranks. He is often credited as being one of the pioneers that brought about the idea of the Special Forces teams in the Sri Lankan army. One of the key attributes that made Prasanna an unstoppable force in the fight to eradicate terrorism in Sri Lanka was the unconventional methods and tactics he employed in the battlefield as well as his out of the box strategies in couter attacking the LTTE fighters.
But throughout the war Prasanna deeply cared about the well being of his troops as well as the innocent Tamil civilians caught in the middle of this long civil war that has now gone on for nearly 30 years.
When the LTTE cut off the water supply of innocent farmers in the East in Mawilaru, most of them Muslim, and the government wanted to help them, Prasanna was instrumental in regaining the Anicut from the LTTE. There are many stories like this where Prasanna has stepped into help out innocent people such as this.
Prasanna later made a decision to resign from the Army due to personal reasons but the Army, knowing how important he was to the cause, persuaded him to stay on.
He was then called in to fight the LTTE from Jaffna to the South, considered to be one of the most difficult areas to tackle due to the terrain comprising of Water, Land and Sea, giving the terrorists more options to fight the Army. Prasanna also had to overcome almost all the Sea Tiger bases as they were all stationed along this stretch.
It goes without saying that we as a country owe enormous gratitude to his parents for giving our nation a man of such quality.
And there can be no argument that the Military victory we are enjoying today owes a great deal to the leadership and forward thinking vision of Prasanna De Silva.
For More Information - Click here -Sri Lanka Guardian
 Brigadier Prasanna De Silva spearheaded the liberation of Eastern Sri Lanka from the LTTE, which bega...){kind=link}
Brigadier Prasanna's leadership, care for his men and for innocent civilians, as pointed out in your article, are the hallmarks of true leadership. The future of the Army is in good hands with officers of his calibre. Good Luck Mate!
Cibba
Dear writer,
Thanks for writing a nice story about a great hero who is obviously not spoken about in the Media as much. Lot of Sri Lankans only know the names of few military leaders involved in the battle. The most heard names are Gota, Shavendra and Sarath. With all due respect to them, I must say the recent victories would not have been possible if not for may other leaders. Please write a story about each and every one of these great leaders. We owe a lot to them for saving our nation from bunch of covertly terrorists.
The liberation of Sri Lanka manifested at Ananda College to which all Sinhales Buddhist and peace loving Sri Lankans are indebted. The responsibility of protecting the nation and the religion is Anandians prime responsibility and this is how they do that through almost all present political and defence leadership. BRIGADIER DE Silva, our salute to you and We are proud to be a part of that legacy.
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