It's him all right, confirm Prabhakaran's ex-aides

Two former top aides of Velupillai Prabhakaran flew into Sri Lanka's northern war zone and "positively identified" the body of the slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief who led a ruthless struggle for a separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils.

Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was the eastern commander of the LTTE before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, and Daya Master, who surrendered to the army recently, were taken by the government to Puthumatalan to identify Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body.

"The body is of Prabhakaran's, there is no doubt about this. Though I am a bit saddened that he is no more, the fact is he never listened to anyone. He always believed that violence was the only solution," Karuna, who is now a federal minister, told PTI in Colombo.

"It is the same, there is no change in his body. He met with this fate for his own deeds," he said.

The defence ministry said "the body has been positively identified as Prabhakaran's by MP Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan and Daya Master."