By Sandeep Unnithan
(May 11, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) His real name is Shanmugalingam Shivashankar, but the world knows him by his nom de guerre 'Pottu Amman'.
Loosely translated from Tamil, it means 'uncle of the tilak fame', a reference to an incident decades ago when he swooned after slashing his arm to apply a tilak on the head of a Sri Lankan Tamil leader.
The shadowy, ruthless intelligence chief of the LTTE and the virtual number two in the organisation after Prabhakaran, Amman is also the head of the notorious Black Tiger suicide commandos.
An Interpol red corner alert lists the 47 year-old native of Jaffna as 'very alert and a master of disguises'. And this is where Amman's capability lies: subterfuge rather than in guerrilla warfare. He was handpicked by Prabhakaran for his abilities in planning assassinations of practically anyone who stood in the way of the LTTE's rise as the sole representative of the Sri Lankan Tamil cause.
That included Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 in which he emerged the key planner and executor and President Premadasa in 1993. Over the years, Amman became the most ruthless intelligence chief of a terrorist group anywhere in the world.
Now, with the Lankan forces closing in around the fast shrinking No Fire Zone, analysts say it is vital that Amman be captured alive. While Prabhakaran is vital for the resurrection of LTTE once again, capture of Pottu is vital for those who are trying to eradicate LTTE's vast intelligence network both at home and abroad.
There is credible evidence of LTTE links with India's Naxalites—LTTE IED—making videos have surfaced in Naxal-hideouts. Amman would know the extent of the terror outfits global reach.
"Apart from Prabhakaran, he is perhaps one leader who is probably in the know of all nuggets of information relating to the entire operation of the super secret organisation," says Colonel Hariharan (retd) former intelligence of the IPKF in Sri Lanka.
In fact, until lately, only one photograph of the reclusive intelligence chief had emerged. Little is known about his personal life though one source says he is married and has three sons, the oldest of who is 21 years.
"Sri Lankans would be looking for Pottu much more than anyone else because he had been controlling the foreign intelligence network operations of LTTE and that in turn would be linked to the LTTE's sizeable resources and assets overseas. So I am sure SLSF would like to capture him alive. He would also know about the LTTE linkages with Islamist Jihadi groups, Maoists, and ULFA insurgents and probably PKK," Hariharan says.
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