Paramilitary leader Pillayan arrested by Sri Lankan police in Batticaloa

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By Editor_1
Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, better known as Pillayan, a former chief minister and current head of the paramilitary Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), was arrested by Sri Lankan police in Batticaloa on Monday (April 7, 2025) night - File

COLOMBO – Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, better known as Pillayan, a former chief minister and current head of the paramilitary Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), was arrested by Sri Lankan police in Batticaloa on Monday (7) night.

The arrest was carried out at the TMVP headquarters in Batticaloa, with officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) reportedly arriving in a civilian vehicle and taking Pillayan into custody. Party sources confirmed the arrest to BBC Tamil and stated that police had informed them Pillayan would be transported to Colombo.

No official reason for the arrest has been publicly released, but local media and law enforcement sources have linked it to an ongoing CID investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. The coordinated attacks killed over 250 people and injured hundreds more across churches and hotels in Colombo, Batticaloa, and Negombo.

Firecrackers were lit by a group of unknown persons in Batticaloa Tuesday (8) evening, reportedly to celebrate his arrest.

Pillayan’s detention comes shortly after he formed a new political alliance with Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, also known as Karuna Amman – another paramilitary leader. The alliance, announced last month, was billed as a new political front for ‘Eastern Tamils’ and marked a rare public reunion of two pro-Sri Lankan government figures widely viewed as controversial and complicit in atrocities during and after the armed conflict.

Pillayan has been linked to several violent incidents and accused of war crimes. He was arrested in 2015 and remanded for over five years in connection with the 2005 assassination of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham. Though he was eventually released and acquitted in 2021, the trial was marred by delays and accusations of political interference.

More recently, Pillayan was named in a 2023 Channel 4 documentary that investigated the Easter Sunday attacks and alleged deep ties between Sri Lankan military intelligence and extremist Islamist groups. The documentary specifically accused senior military officials, alongside Pillayan and Karuna, of facilitating or enabling the attacks as part of a strategy to manufacture a security crisis ahead of the 2019 presidential election, paving the way for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory.

In response to the program, Pillayan appeared before the CID in October 2023. Speaking to the press afterwards, he said: “If I am guilty, I will hang myself,” denying all allegations. “The aim of this is to punish the people of the East,” he claimed, framing the accusations as part of a political smear campaign against Eastern Tamil leadership.

Pillayan gave an interview to BBC Tamil last month, where he was directly questioned on his involvement in the Easter Sunday attacks.

He claimed that he was in prison at the time of the Easter Sunday attacks and could not have been involved, and that he was actively participating in the presidential inquiry into the attacks, during which he interviewed detained suspects and submitted his findings to the authorities.

Pillayan also alleged that several individuals currently serving as ‘protection officials’ were also in positions of power at the time of the attacks, but failed to address the issue appropriately. He accuses them of now attempting to ‘reshape the narrative’ of the investigation.

He went on to refer to the three-member committee appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe to investigate the Channel 4 documentary, stating that the committee found him innocent and confirmed the allegations against him were fabricated. As a result, he asserts that the ‘real criminals’ have escaped.

The TMVP, which Pillayan leads, has a long and controversial history. Originally formed as a breakaway faction from the LTTE, it became a paramilitary group allied with the Sri Lankan military during the final years of the armed conflict. The group was implicated in enforced disappearances, abductions, extrajudicial killings, and widespread human rights abuses, particularly in the Eastern Province.

-TG

 

Editor_1
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