By Maya Anthony Courtesy Ceylon Today

By Maya Anthony 

The remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are regrouping in the UK. Like Osama bin Laden groomed Hamza bin Laden to succeed him, the LTTE leaders and members are grooming their own children.

 Prabhakaran too set an example by training and grooming his children; Charles Anthony, Dwarka and Balachandran. To radicalise their next generation, the separatists are promoting a false narrative. Using funds and votes, the terrorists are planning to penetrate both the Labour and Conservative Parties in the UK. 

The blood of a terrorist and the genes of terrorism run through the veins of Sarmila Varatharaj, the Vice-Chair of the ‘Tamils for Labour’ terrorist front. Her father, Kunddu Ragu alias Kannan was a top-level operative of one of the most ruthless, brutal and barbaric terrorist organisations on the planet; the LTTE. Having being defeated by the Sri Lankan Security Forces in 2009, Ragu now utilises his daughter to continue the battle for the creation of an imaginary Tamil Eelam; the ultimate goal of the terrorists.

 While Ragu used suicide bombers, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, his daughter Sarmila, uses lies, misinformation and political lobbying – both involved in attempting to destroy the harmony between the Tamil and Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka. Sarmila Varatharaj is a Communications and Social Media officer for the Tooting Labour Party and a Spokesperson for Global Human Rights Defence to the UNHRC in Geneva – a position of pure irony given that her family background is one of the darkest anyone would come across. 

Her father, Ragu, was a part of the inner circle of the megalomaniac terrorist, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who massacred a plethora of innocent Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslim civilians, whilst also launching attacks on places of worship, public gatherings, villages and economic localities. 

Being a ruthless terrorist, Ragu alias Kannan was a key figure in the brutal assassination of the democratically elected Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a female suicide bomber of the LTTE, where 14 other innocent lives were also decimated during the bombing. 

Just like the female suicide bomber released thousands of pieces of shrapnel and chemicals against democratically elected leaders and innocent civilians, Sarmila Varatharaj releases thousands of pieces of false truths and disinformation against democratically elected leaders and innocent civilians. In the months prior to their ultimate military defeat in 2009, the LTTE used tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians as human shields so that the top-level terrorists, like Ragu alias Kannan, could escape death. 

During this time, the LTTE front organisations and LTTE supporters in the West, like Sarmila Varatharaj, continually launched protests in support of the terrorists and spewed misinformation and hate against the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. In her speech at the Labour Party Conference in September 2021, Sarmila knowingly or unknowingly exposed the true nature of the ‘Tamils for Labour’ organisation. 

She unapologetically stated that the organisation was established 16 years ago to divert the 400,000 Tamils living in the United Kingdom to politically vote for the British Labour Party in exchange for the Labour Party’s support. Sarmila’s exposition was a classic example of how the LTTE terrorist fronts in the West attempt to gain political support through lobbying and minority votes in order to realise their lifelong investment – the LTTE. 

Ragu alias Kannan, along with thousands of other deadly terrorists in the North and East of Sri Lanka waged a fearful campaign of terror and destruction in the island nation for over 30 years. The LTTE was responsible for thousands of civilian deaths and almost a hundred planned assassinations of political opponents, military leaders and officials of all races alike. 

The LTTE was a transnational terrorist group responsible for staging attacks on multiple nations and building a network across the world for arms procurement, shipping and fund raising. Sarmila repeatedly mentions the unsubstantiated claim of a Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka. 

Must she be reminded that the Sri Lankan State rescued more than 60,000 Tamils from being exploited as human shields by people like her father, in what would become the world’s largest hostage rescue mission? Must she be reminded that members of her immediate family were responsible for the cold-blooded murder of children and women in the villages of Sri Lanka? Must she be reminded about how her father was part of the inner circle that carried out the brutal massacres of innocent pilgrims in places of worship around Sri Lanka? Must she be reminded how people like her father stripped Tamil children of their childhood, provided them with RPGs and assault rifles and a miniature bottle of deadly cyanide to swallow in case of capture? The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was deemed one of the ‘most dangerous and deadly extremists’ by the Federal Bureau of Investigations [FBI]. 

The FBI also stated that the LTTE was deadlier than Al-Qaeda and that the LTTE’s ‘ruthless tactics have inspired terrorist networks worldwide’. Sarmila’s father was a high-level operative of the terrorist outfit that invented the suicide vest and the group that launched the largest amount of suicide attacks before the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda. Perhaps, it is time that Sarmila dictates her father on the thousands of crimes he has committed against the innocent, before she disseminates misinformation against the Sri Lankan people. 

Perhaps, it is time that the British MPs, such as Stephen Kinnock, stop being fooled by the second-generation terrorist supporters and see the Sri Lankan war for what it really is; a war against deadly terrorism. Ragu alias Kannan once fought hard to destroy the harmony in the island nation and now, the second generation LTTE are trying their best to follow their parents’ footsteps and destroy the peace in the country, while living on their seats in foreign lands.

 Notwithstanding the efforts of the criminals, it is indisputable and impossible to separate the brotherhood of the Sinhalese and the Tamil ethnicities in Sri Lanka, who have lived side by side for hundreds of years. Like father, like daughter, the blood of terrorism flows through their veins – but the thick blood of the Sri Lankan will never be defeated by any form of terrorism. 

Writer: Maya Anthony is a Human Rights Activist from Jaffna.