After Learning Of Balachandran’s Killing Mahinda Went To Bellanwila Temple And Said ‘This Should Not Have Happened’

MAY 18, 2014

Although the President Mahinda has not commented on Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s son, Balachandran, he knew that Balachandnran was killed by the security forces, Colombo Telegraph can reveal today.

President Rajapaksa was shocked and distraught when he was informed that Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s son, Balachandran, had been killed, Colombo Telegraph reliably learns.  The President had at that point traveled without his usual security detail to the Bellanwila Temple where he had spent some moments in deep reflection.  Colombo Telegraph learns that he had said ‘this should not have happened.’  Although the President has not commented on Balachandran, political analysts opine that this indicates that there was no ‘decision from the top’ with respect to the fate of Prabhakaran’s child.

The Sri Lankan government has not indicated any knowledge about how Balachandran was killed, a position that is not inconsistent with the above revelation.

A series of photographs taken a few hours apart and on the same camera, show Balachandran Prabhakaran. One of them shows the boy sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan troops. Another, a few hours later, shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets.  The authorities always said Prabhakaran’s son was killed in cross-fire, as troops moved in to take the LTTE’s last stronghold, located on a scrap of coastline near Mullaitivu in the north-east of the country. In these photographs, which digital image analysis indicates were taken with the same camera, we can see he has been shot five times in the chest.

“These photographs are particularly important evidentially, because they prove that Balachandran was not killed in crossfire, or in a battle. His death was deliberate and calculated. The pictures fill in chilling details on the circumstances of his murder — and leave the Sri Lankan government with yet more questions to answer about just how systematic the executions at the end of the war appear to have been. Last year, we first revealed video footage and stills which showed Balachandran’s body shortly after his execution. These were analysed for us by a respected forensic pathologist, Professor Derrick Pounder, to assess the cause of death.” said the director, “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka”, Callum Macrae.

Professor Derrick identified what he thinks is the first of the shots to be fired at the boy: “There is a speckling (on the skin) from propellant tattooing, indicating that the distance of the muzzle of the weapon to this boy’s chest was two to three feet or less. He could have reached out with his hand and touched the gun that killed him.”

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