The relentless storm that encouraging the fighters – Lt. Col. Ranjan
The relentless storm that encouraging the fighters – Lt. Col. Ranjan
That is the border district of Tamileelam, the Amparai district, which has the most beautiful fields of green pastures, the dense forest that nurtures our brave fighters on its border. And the beautiful Tamil villages that have given birth to many freedom fighters. Although that forest is familiar to us, it is full of fear for those who go there for the first time.
In the LTTE camp inside that forest, the sun cannot be seen even during the day. We do not know which direction we are in. There are many different and very scary sounds of many animals. Going alone is an impossible task for some people. Because we will get lost and go somewhere else. Fear of being attacked by animals in the late 90s, when the second phase of the Eelam war began, we had gone to one of our camps in Akkanakam in Mattacalappu for work. One day, from somewhere else a handsome fighter and his M-16 rifle barrel looking into the sky came to our camp located in the middle of the forest. He was coming towards us. Some of us did not know him. Then, when he came next to us, the fighter who was nearby said, “Hello Ranjan,” and we recognized his name. Then, after asking our names, he introduced himself and said, “Let’s meet later,” with a smile, and said goodbye.
Only then did we ask the fighter next to us who this was. The fighter told us about him. He was the one in charge of the forward team. (Forward means the border of the forest, the area near the enemy’s camps) That’s how we first got to know him. But the work of the forward team is difficult there. There are many tasks such as going to the forest, preventing the enemy from entering the forest, and showing the way to the fighters who are going to collect food. Going to collect food there is not easy to say, it is more difficult than fighting the enemy.
Because we have to collect the materials little by little from our people living in the enemy’s territory from many places and bring it to our territory within one night and only then take it to our camp in the forest and use it for cooking, eating, and storing food. Ranjan had such task at that time. We would go to his place and that’s when we came to know his friendship.
Ranjan’s family is a modest family. He was born as the second son of the Sellathurai couple in Thambiluvil, one of the ancient villages of Amparai district. His real name is Prabhakaran. He has a brother. He became maveeran in Maddacalappu in 1992. (2nd Lieutenant Joseph.) He has another sister. Born as the second in that modest family and due to family circumstances, Ranjan stopped his education after a few years and started helping his father in farming. He was very energetic and willing to help others from a young age.
It was at that time that the liberation struggle was in full swing. The Special Task Force (STF), the Tamil extermination force of the Sinhala chauvinist forces, was killing many Tamils in the mid-eighties. It was this influence that attracted him to the struggle. In late 1986, he joined the LTTE at the age of sixteen.
While he was training at the Amparai Second Training Camp, he participated in many operations against the army there. His agricultural teacher and the then Amparai District Commander, Antony, saw his talent and chose him as his assistant and made him participate in many operations.
After the training, the Indian Peace Keeping Force came to our land for a while. Then the peace keeping force became an occupation force. In that, he participated in all the attacks of the Amparai district with the Indian Army along with Commander Antony and began to shine as a highly experienced freedom fighter. In the early 1990s, when Commander Antony came to Northern Tamileelam at the invitation of the national leader, he accompanied him, met the leader “in his heart” and returned to Southern Tamileelam. At that time, it was rare for a significant number of Southern Tamileelam fighters to see the national leader. And many fighters who said that it would be a relief to see the national leader at least once and then die a martyr’s death have died a martyr’s death without fulfilling that wish. Especially, the stories that a few fighters like Ranjan talks about the national leader after seeing him are incredible.
The Second Eelam War began when Ranjan, who had returned to southern Tamileelam, was placed in charge of a team with Lieutenant Colonel Regan, who was then the Deputy Commander of Mattacalappu and Amparai Districts. During that time, he participated in all the attacks in Mattacalappu and was instrumental in many of the victories.
In the late 1990s, Antony was sent to Amparai district. He was appointed as the head of the frontline group by the then Amparai district commander, Ram. He worked there as a brave man for about a year and a half. One thing, I said earlier that bringing food there was the hardest task. When we went for such a task, he would go to the clearing first. In feeding the fighters, like a father, he would feed them with good meat, whether it was the meat of some animal or by going to the ponds alone and catching fish. He was always active. It must be said that his work during that tense period in Amparai was immense.
He was called back to Mattacalappu in mid-1992 and appointed as a squad leader. At that time, the enemy in Mattacalappu, wherever they set foot, never returned to their camp without losses, and the LTTE did not return to their camp without killing the Sri Lankan army and capturing weapons. With the weapons they captured, the LTTE became a big army in Mattacalappu. The enemy was terrified by the LTTE squads that were self-sufficient in weapons. They were afraid to leave the camp. Due to such attacks by the LTTE, many enemy camps that did not even go to get food were closed at that time. For example, in the latter part of 1992, the Vakarai area of Mattacalappu was brought under the control of the LTTE, in which Ranjan acted as a squad leader in many attacks.
It was during that period, in early 1993, on the instructions of the national leader, a battalion from the Maddu-Amparai district was called to Northern Tamileelam with a big plan. The battalion was named the Jayanthan Battalion by the national leader and training was conducted. At that time, he was a company commander. He was able to complete any task given to him quickly and was also efficient in training. He was given a part in the offensive plan for Operation “Thavalai” and training was conducted. He took care that his fighters should not get tired during the training. Although all the fighters in our battalion were experienced in fighting, they were inexperienced in fighting based on the great combat techniques that had been instilled by the leader in Northern Tamileelam. Since it was the first battle to be fought with many battalions and the first battle of the battalion after being named. We had to show the enemy who our battalion was at any time. The areas given to our brigade should be captured first by other brigades. The national leader has trusted us. He will always talk about protecting that trust.
When the attack took place, as per the leader’s expectations, they proved their ability in the initial attack itself. Ranjan was one of them. He captured the area given to him very quickly and without much loss. Ranjan, who showed his ability through that attack, emerged as an unassuming, calm, decisive, and an excellent commander who grasps anything very quickly and acts accordingly.
It was in mid-1994 that a group of fighters who participated in the Poonagari Thavala Operation were sent to Mattacalappu, Amparai district with Commander Ram under the leader’s instructions. Ranjan was appointed as the commander of the Amparai district.
At that time, the situation in the Maddu-Ampara district was different. The enemy’s activities had increased. It was a tense time with enemy camps and ambushes everywhere.
The fighters were fighting the war by drinking the porridge they occasionally found. That was when the team went to Mattacalappu. Since the LTTE teams did not want the enemy to know that they had gone there until they launched an attack, they had to operate in secret, from reconnaissance to training for the attack plan. At that time, the custom was to bring food supplies. The reason was that they had to cross the long distance and the enemy’s ambush team’s activities. They trained for the attack by drinking porridge for an hour or two. The attack plan was in the center of the Maddu-Vagarai area and a very important place for the LTTE. The camp was a strong camp of the Special Forces (S.F.) of the Sri Lankan Army. The camp was successfully attacked and destroyed. Ranjan completed the task assigned to him.
After the attack on the camp, a commander sent a team with Ranjan to the Amparai district. Going from Mattacalappu to Amparai was not an easy task. At that time, there were enemy camps and patrols everywhere on the way there. It was in the Amparai district that the Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF), which was formed by Sri Lanka’s late President J.R. Jayewardene under the leadership of his son with the aim of indiscriminately destroying Tamils and settling the Sinhalese, was, and still is, there.
It was there that in mid-1994, when the LTTE’s activities had significantly decreased. Ranjan went to Amparai with a small team later that year. When he was leaving Mattacalappu, he said one thing to us. “If we do not kill the ‘S.T.F.’ within a month and do not take up arms, consider me as a maveeran.” We knew that Ranjan would do what he said. But we all thought it would be difficult because there was no environment to do it quickly. As he had said, within a month, he killed seven people in the Rottaikulam area of Pottuvil and captured their weapons. His attacks began that way, and the next month he carried out another attack at Simbilanduwa. He also captured weapons there.
Ranjan’s name became so famous among the enemy that the enemy was terrified by his attacks and was afraid to even move outside. Then, wherever Ranjan could cause trouble to the enemy, he did it.
We saw a unique quality in him. We saw the ability to accept anyone’s opinions, do what was possible in them, listen to the opinions of ordinary fighters, analyze them accordingly, and encourage and develop the fighters by encouraging them to do good.
The ceasefire came in early 1995. Ranjan did not rest, because he could not believe the negotiations at that time. He worked tirelessly to prepare ourselves. An interesting thing should be mentioned here. During the war break, when we were going to the military control area, an STF soldier asked Ranjan, “Can we see Ranjan?” To that, he said, “You cannot see him.” “Why?” He kept asking repeatedly. At that time, the fighter standing next to him said, “Tell him the matter and we will tell him.” The soldier said, “Ranjan is beating us, isn’t he?” “You are a tough man, tell him not to attack us if you come to fight.” We saw that the impact of Ranjan’s attack affected every soldier.
The third phase of the Eelam War began. Then Ranjan said that our first steps should be to eliminate some camps of the enemy. Accordingly, he made a plan. The attack plan was prepared so that not even one of the soldiers coming on a patrol would go alive. The plan was to lie in wait in that place for three days and attack whenever they came. The attack patrol was surrounded by the LTTE.
Ranjan led the way inside. Not a single one of the arriving force was left behind, and all twenty ‘STF’ patrolling soldiers were killed, and all their weapons were captured.
This was a successful attack at that time, and the fact that the LTTE suffered no losses was a testament to Ranjan’s war strategy. This attack took place between Kanjikudiyar and Kanjiranguda. Later, when the Kanjikudiyar camp was cleared, Ranjan’s attack was crucial in making that place a key point for the LTTE.
We never dreamed that this would be Ranjan’s final operation. I have already mentioned the difficulty of bringing food to the Amparai district. Similarly, a plan was hatched to bring food to another place instead of coming to the camp and stay there and carry out an attack.
Their team left on the night of 27.08.1995 to bring food to the other side of the river. From there, they had to return to the place where they were supposed to stay that night.
The attack plan would be successful, so that night the exhausted fighters who had come there with their packs did not rest. Among those who had come there very tired, only a few, including Ranjan, did not carry food packs. The reason was that they had cleared the area ahead. Therefore, they left the fighters who had come with their packs to sleep and went to the nearby pond to catch fish to cook for the exhausted fighters.
On 28.08.1995, Ranjan´s intense freedom struggle was supposed to end. As he loved the soil and as he also loved the fighters. When he went to feed the fighters he loved, became a maveeran due to the unexpected clash of the enemy. He rested in this soil, the storm that blew relentlessly.
“The one I expected to achieve more in this liberation war, he achieved more quickly and died a heroic death,” said a senior commander of the movement with tearful eyes after Ranjan’s loss. Then no one needs to describe the fighter named Ranjan in any other words.
– LTTE Magazine
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
போராளிகளைத் தட்டிக்கொடுக்கும் ஓயாமல் வீசிய புயல் லெப். கேணல் றஞ்சன்
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