The Sri Lankan president said slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's mother and mother-in-law were free to go to India to settle, if they wanted
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa today said slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's mother and mother-in-law were free to go to India to settle, if they wanted.
"They (Prabhakaran's mother and mother-in-law) can go to India if India agrees," Rajapaksa told foreign journalists here in reply to question.
Though Prabhakaran's mother Parvathi Pillai and his mother-in-law Erambu have not publicly expressed any plans about their future, MDMK leader Vaiko and the former Tiger chief's cousin Rajendran have asked the Sri Lankan government to send his aged mother Parvathi to Tamil Nadu.
The two women are now left without any menfolk in their household with the passing away of Prabhakaran's father Velupillai recently. His elder son Charles Anthony was killed days before his father in fighting in northern Sri lanka.
Seven months after Prabhakaran died when the last remnants of his outfit Tamil Tigers were defeated at Nanthaikadal lagoon off the northern coast, mystery still shrouds the whereabouts of his wife and younger son.
Rajapaksa said respect was shown to the mortal remains of Prabhakaran's father Velupillai and it was well embalmed and a
few vehicles were also allotted for the cremation ceremony.
The president said he was told over 300 people attended the funeral of the LTTE leader's father. Parvathi and Erambu were also present during the cremation in Jaffna earlier this week.
Video footage showed Parvathi in a wheelchair sitting by the side of the body before it was cremated at Velvetiturai.
Velupillai died last week at the age of 86. At the time his death he was at the army camp at Panagoda in Western Province, that houses one of the biggest military hospitals.
Earlier Prabhakaran's parents had been living in military protection in the Wanni region ever since the defeat of the rebel LTTE in May last year. The government has maintained that they had been kept in good conditions.
Though his son led a 25-year military campaign for creating a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, Prabhakaran's father served in the Sri Lankan government for 39 years, beginning his career as a clerk at the Ceylon Government Railways in 1943.
He received several promotions, retiring as Land Officer of the Land Settlement Department in 1982.
The LTTE supremo's parents, who were reportedly living in a welfare camp in Vavuniya with the relatives of other LTTE leaders, were found by the security forces after the annihilation of the rebel outfit in the military operation.
The "mild-mannered" Velupillai never endorsed the militant ways of his son and was not even on talking terms with him for a long period, a media report had claimed.
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