By Former militant turned politician Vinyakamoorthy Muralidharan, alias Karuna Amman has launched the ‘Amman Bigigade’ in move to contest the coming elections.
The labelling of his new moment draws parallels to his militant activates.
Launching his movement he said that ‘Amman Brigade’ to support the welfare and interests of former LTTE combatants who were released to society after undergoing rehabilitation.
Karuna, one time minister of national integration and Vice –President of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party failed to secure a seat in the last election.
He said that he is capable of raising funds from the Diaspora for ex-LTTE carders in the north and east to start a new life.
He is tapping into his background as a former militant leader for a new political venture .
Karuna Formerly a fighter for the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), for over 20 years, later rose to prominence after defecting from the LTTE and forming the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the LTTE.
He was the LTTE head of the Eastern Province in 1990 when 600 unarmed police officers who surrendered to the group were subsequently massacred.
On 19 June 2020, Karuna made a publicity stunt by making a revelation that he was even cruel and merciless than the COVID-19 virus saying “I am more dangerous than the coronavirus. Corona killed 11 people but I killed 2000-3000 soldiers within one day.”[30] He stated that he killed more than 3000 soldiers at the Elephant Pass during the war and claimed that he was more dangerous than the COVID-19 related fatalities in the country.[31][32] His insensible comments drew widespread criticism from political fraternity calling him a barbarian and he was summoned to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department to record statements.
Karuna later claimed that his speech was edited by the media and that he never made such comments. The UN Human Rights Commission called upon the government to start further investigations regarding Karuna’s former alleged war crimes, however, the Karuna and the TMVP were close allies with the SLPP, the ruling party, which defended Karuna
