Is LTTE leader Prabhakaran still alive?

India's former Congressman P Nedumaran today claimed that V Prabhakaran, chief of Tamil separatist organisation Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was still alive.

V Prabhakaran's death was officially announced by the Lankan army following their war against LTTE in 2009.

Nedumaran, the Tamil nationalist leader, further claimed that Prabhakaran would soon come out in the open and spell out his plans, reports The Indian Express.

Several members of his family, who were reportedly killed, were alive too, he said, while addressing a press conference in Thanjavur of Tamil Nadu.

"I want to say that Prabhakaran is still alive and doing well. I'm happy to tell the Tamil diaspora about that. All the rumours and questions about him might be thus answered. He would announce his next plan (to liberate) Tamil Eelam very soon himself," Nedumaran claimed, urging Tamils around the world to come out to welcome him.

"When the LTTE was still around, they never let any anti-Indian forces use Sri Lankan land. But we can see that China's influence in Sri Lanka has grown and that China now controls Sri Lanka… They are also getting more power over the Indian Ocean. I ask the Indian government to do what needs to be done to stop this geopolitical situation," he said, calling upon "all Tamil people and parties" to rally in support of Prabhakaran.

This was however not the first time that Nedumaran made such a claim about Prabhakaran being alive.

In an April 2018 interview with The Indian Express, Nedumaran had made similar claims about Prabhakaran being alive.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Army categorically denied his claim and said there's no such evidence, reports ABP Nadu.