The LTTE leader had in the meantime thought of honouring his dead cadres by observing a unique ceremony called Maaveerar Naal or Great Heroes Day. That verdict would in turn decide the fate of the Indian Army in Sri Lanka. The Indian Parliamentary elections scheduled for December would determine whether Rajiv Gandhi would be re-elected or not. Thanks to the understanding arrived at between the LTTE and then President Ranasinghe Premadasa a cease-fire had been declared on September 21, that year.Ī withdrawal of troops had been announced in principle. This was the time when the Indian army was fighting the LTTE on behalf of the Sri Lankan government. The occasion was the newly proclaimed Great Heroes Day or Maaveerar Naal as known in Tamil. Seven years later in 1989 around six hundred LTTE cadres assembled at a secret venue in the Mullaitheevu district jungles of Nithikaikulam on November 27. Death in combat of a cadre whether immediate or subsequent was a new phenomenon to the LTTE on that day. This was one of the few occasions when the LTTE leader ever wept in public. Shankar died in Madurai on Prabakharan’s lap mumbling “Thambi, Thambi” (thambi was the endearing term by which Prabakharan was known in the old days) while the visibly shaken and weeping LTTE leader kept stroking his hair. This worsened his condition to a point of no return. The people nursing Shankar in the coastal hideout had ignorantly given a lot of water to quench his thirst. Thanks to the help rendered by Pazhaniappan Nedumaran who was then a member of the Tamil Nadu Legislative assembly representing Madurai West, Shankar was brought to a farmhouse belonging to Nedumaran for medical treatment. This was the time when Prabakharan was confined by court order to Madurai because of his involvement in a broad daylight shoot out with Peoples Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) chief Umamaheswaran at Pondy Bazaar in Chennai (then Madras). Leaving the grievously injured Shankar in a safehouse at Kodiaakkarai, on the coast,Anton went up to Madurai where LTTE chief Prabakharan and some others were staying then. This was in the pre-1983 period when the LTTE consisted only of around 25 to 30 full-time activists and had very few resources including even wireless communication equipment. Later Shankar’s condition deteriorated and another senior LTTE member Thalayasingham Sivakumar alias Anton master who later represented the Tigers at the Thimphu talks undertook a perilous, clandestine journey by boat along with the injured Shankar to Tamil Nadu to procure urgent medical assistance for the latter. Shankar managed to shoot his way out of the military cordon but sustained serious injuries in the process. Shankar had gone to the Nithiyanandan residence in Navalar Road, Jaffna to warn them of a military crackdown on Tamil professionals and intellectuals suspected of being sympathetic towards the LTTEĮven as Shankar was communicating with Jaffna University Lecturer Muthiah Nithiyanandan and his wife Nirmala an-ex-varsity lecturer who was teaching at a leading Girls School, a posse of soldiers surrounded the house. Shankar like Raveendran alias Pandithar-also of Kambarmalai-was a childhood friend of Prabakharan and one of his earliest recruits.
The family is now living in Trincomalee under a restricted release order. Although Soosai is no more his wife and children were captured by the Sri Lankan navy when trying to escape from the Wanni by boat during the last days of the war. Soosai is from Poligandy a coastal village in Vadamaratchy sector. Incidently the sea tiger special commander Thillaiambalam Sivanesan alias Soosai was married to Shankar’s sister. Sathiyanathan alias Shankar also known as Suresh died on November 27, 1982. The first ever Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) member to embrace death in combat was Sathiyanathan of Kambarmalai a northern village adjacent to Valvettithurai, the birthplace of Velupillai Prabakharan its leader. Let me begin by tracing in brief the history of this event. This article therefore draws liberally from his earlier writings. This writer has in the past written several articles on the topic. In that context the evolution and growth of the Great Heroes day event makes an interesting study. What makes the GHD tick despite the debacle of Mullivaaikkal? This is not restricted to Tiger and pro-Tiger elements alone. There is a mystique about “Maaveerar Naal” that has captured the imagination of a very large number of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora. Commemorating the fallen tigers as great heroes annually remains an enduring tiger legacy.
“Maaveerar Naal” or Great Heroes Day (GHD) falling on November 27th continues to be observed on a large scale by sections of the Global Tamil Diaspora despite the military debacle suffered by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE)in May 2009.
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