Sri Lanka declared a total victory today (18th May’08) in the war against one of the world’s most intractable insurgents, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (which maintained 7000 strong army in full war gears including fighter planes and a formidable Navy) and took full control of the country after 26 years. The war took an estimated 70000 lives.
LTTE started insurgency in 1983 and gradually developed into almost an army, demanding a separate independent Tamil state in the northern part of the island country. All these years LTTE faught the Sri Lankan army successfully and even beat back the Indian Peace Keeping Force in late eighties (IPKF).
At the height of insurgency, the LTTE even killed Indian Ex-Prime Minister Rajib Gandhi in 1991 as a revenge for sending IPKF. The end of LTTE and death of its leader V.Pravakaran, 55, established once again the rule of law in the tiny island country. Indians in general and the Congressmen in particular silently enjoyed the episode as if Rajib Gandhi’s death was avenged.
On the other hand, Pakistan seemed determined to weed out Talibans, another ‘do or die’ insurgent organization. As per intelligence Taliban has the potential to capture power in Pakistan forcibly (like they did in Afghanistan) and the nuclear facility of Pakistan has the danger of falling into their hands in that event.
The defeat of LTTE would definitely demoralize all the terrorist organizations, including ULFA in Assam in India. Thus a new chapter has begun in the Indian sub-continent to lively fight out all terrorists irrespective of their religious inclination.