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EPRLF Varathar wing senior member shot dead in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 June 2003, 03:10 GMT]
An unidentified sniper is reported to have shot dead Mr. Kandiah Subathiran alias Robert, the most senior member of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (Varathar wing) Saturday morning around 6.30 when he was doing physical exercise in the upper floor of the EPRLF (Varathar wing) office which is located along the Jaffna hospital road, police said.

Kandiah Subathiran, defacto leader of EPRLF (Varathar wing) (Photo: The Hindu)

Forty-year-old Mr. Subathiran was immediately taken to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead on admission, medical sources said.

Police and army officials in the Jaffna district rushed to the hospital and to the scene of incident, cordoned off the area around EPRLF office and started investigation into the murder, police said.

Mr.K. Subathiran is the most senior in the EPRLF Varathar wing and is considered as second only to Mr.C.Varatharajaperumal, the leader of the EPRLF Varathar wing and a former chief minister of the northeast province in 1989, party sources said.

Mr. Subathiran was a member of the dissolved Jaffna Municipal Council and unsuccessfully contested as the lead candidate of the EPRLF Varathar wing at the last parliamentary election 2001 in the Jaffna district, sources said.

Mr. Subathiran was a native of Udupiddy in Jaffna district. At that time of his death he was in charge of the EPRLF Varathar wing political activities in the northeast, party sources said.

Eelam Peoples' Revolutionary Liberation Front - (EPRLF-Varathar) is led by Varadarajaperumal who is living in India under the protection of the Indian Government. Varatharajaperumal's (Perumal's) EPRLF left militancy in 1988 at the instance of India and the Sri Lankan government and contested the NEP provincial council elections in the face of opposition from the LTTE.

In 1990, when the Indian army began withdrawing from Sri Lanka, Perumal feld to India.