Pottu Amman wasn't in our custody: He well and truly dead -Army Commander

Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka yesterday dismissed the rumour that LTTE Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman and his Deputy Kapil Amman were in army custody and were being interrogated.

General Fonseka told a English weekly “I am sorry that Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and Kapil Amman were killed, because I wanted to capture them alive. We would have been able to unearth a lot more information if we had done that”.

He said that it is difficult to kill one and capture the other in a fierce battle in the jungle.

The main reason for confusion regarding the fate of Pottu Amman is that his body has still not been identified. According to reports from the battlefront, troops are still looking for his body.

Hundreds of bodies of guerillas who were killed in the final battle were seen floating in the Nanthikadal lagoon. Some bodies sunk to the bottom of the sea and divers were sent to retrieve them. Efforts are still being made to identify these bodies but identification is difficult as the bodies are badly decomposed, he said.

Nevertheless, some of Pottu Amman’s bodyguards who surrendered to the Army confirm that he was shot dead in the last battle as a result of which they decided to surrender...