Is Velupillai Prabhakaran's daughter Duwaraka alive?

Amid opposition to celebrating Maa Veerar Naal or the birth anniversary of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, Tamils coordinating committee in UK announced that it will organise functions in London and Glasgow by live streaming the speech of Duwaraka Prabhakaran, the daughter of Prabhakaran, who is said to have been killed during the last phase of the civil war in Sri Lanka.

Though there have been several reports about the AI-generated videos of Duwaraka that have been produced by the LTTE sympathisers living abroad, there is no official confirmation about her video message.

Who is Duwaraka?

Born in 1986 in Jaffna, Duwaraka was named after Prabhakaran’s favourite bodyguard Mayooran. His real name was Duwarakan. She was the second child of Prabhakaran and Mathivathani, born in between their two sons - Charles Anthony and Balachandran. Prabhakaran named his eldest son after his best friend and military commander Charles Anthony alias Seeman who died in Chavakacheri. Balachandran was named after Mathivathani’s brother who died in a military combat.

Duwaraka was raised in Denmark by her maternal family. Later, she came back to Jaffna with her mother Mathivathani immediately after the IPKF left Sri Lanka. She did her primary schooling at John Bosco in Jaffna and then moved to Killionchi and later to Wanni. During the final stages of the war, Duwaraka was with her family members in the conflict zone. According to highly placed sources, Duwaraka was in the bunker or the container, a hideout, in Mulliwaikkal during the final phase of the conflict. She was reportedly killed in an aerial bombshell attack.

In 2008, when the war was at its peak and getting close to Mulliwaikkal, it was rumoured that Mathivathani and Duwaraka had fled to Europe. It was said that she was pursuing her graduation in an undisclosed location in Europe. It was not revealed if she was in the no-fire zone, or how she fled the conflict zone. However, the Sri Lankan army confirmed the death of Prabhakaran’s wife Mathivathani and Duwaraka, through former LTTE commander Karuna Amman, who was a minister in Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime then.

Duwaraka's video

Though there is no proof that Duwaraka is alive, Mathivathini’s elder sister Aruna, who lives in Denmark, had released a video saying that Duwaraka will come out soon. And then Poet Kasi Ananthan, an LTTE sympathiser who closely works with Pazha Nedumaran, had also said that Duwaraka will deliver a video speech on November 27. But, in a YouTube video, Prabhakaran’s nephew Karthik Manoharan revealed that there is no information about Prabhakaran or his family after the end of the war. “We haven’t heard about Duwaraka for the past 14 years. If it is true that our uncle and aunt are alive, it is Prabhakaran or Mathivathani who will come out to talk and not Duwaraka.” Karthik Manoharan, reportedly lives in Denmark.

According to highly placed intelligence sources, the plans to telecast the AI-generated video of Duwaraka was devised a month ago by the LTTE sympathisers who are living in Canada and London. “There is a spike in the Sinhala settlements in Sri Lanka’s north and east.

“The recent Kuruthurmalai issue is yet another example. The land parcels owned by Tamils are forcefully transferred to the Sinhalese in this region. The belief is that only Prabhakaran can stop this. But, because the talk about Prabhakaran being alive did not prove successful, the LTTE sympathisers have started playing up this rumour,” say sources in the Indian intelligence, who closely follow Sri Lanka. (The Week)