Lt. Col. Thevan

Matyrs
Lt. Col. Thevan

Lt. Col. Thevan

It was dark at night. A light was visible in the army guard. The team was moving. Not only Thevan, but also his one-and-a-half-year-old child and his wife and his family were moving into that team. They were secretly coming towards Vanni from Vavuniya army guard post, passing through the army guard post. When crossing the army guard post, they had to cross silently. If any unknown child screamed, the situation would become disastrous. So, they had already put the child to sleep. However, when they were about to cross the military fence, the child woke up as soon as he saw the light. The child tried to scream. They covered the child’s mouth. They somehow managed to cross the guard post. This is how Thevan’s life of struggle ended.

This is just one example of how dedicated Thevan was to this struggle. There are many achievements in his life, not alone but with his wife and child, who are not fighters. Thevan’s struggle life begins with fighting. It moves with fighting. It ends with fighting. From the day he joined the field in 1988 until his martyrdom, Thevan encountered fighting a lot.

Thevan´s beginning battle was with the Indian Army. It was with that knowledge that Thevan acted as one of the Vavuniya Divisional Attack Team. During this period, the LTTE’s attack teams were divided into divisions. In 1991, an attack was planned on the anti-nationals. Thevan was also selected in that team. The place where the attack was to take place was unsafe for us and no one could go to that area in large numbers. But the attack had to be carried out.

The LTTE team moved. The fight began. The anti-national camp was destroyed. The team returned home victoriously. In this battle, Thevan used the field knowledge he had acquired so far well. He acted skillfully in it.

Thevan introduced himself as a fighter. His fighting skills and his personality made him the special commander of Vavuniya. Thevan’s thoughts were always about battles. He would always talk about it with the fighters. At that time, small attacks were carried out rather than large-scale attacks. Thevan’s job and hobby was to spy on the places where the army guards were located and to carry out attacks based on the intelligence information he saw.

Thevan spent a lot of time on it, trying to carry out at least one attack a week. This was another attack that revealed Thevan’s fighting skills. In 1992, the Sri Lankan army carried out an advance with armored vehicles in the Prappamaram area of Vavuniya. The team led by Thevan rushes to the field to intercept and repel the advancing troops. The battle begins. The Sinhalese forces attack with automatic rifles from their armored vehicles. Thevan moves his team skillfully. He surrounds the Sinhalese forces. The Sinhalese force is stunned and abandons one of the armored vehicles and runs away. Thevan’s skillful leadership makes the battle successful. The L3 weapon in the armored vehicle is removed. It was Thevan who captured the first L3 weapon in Vanni District.

This was recorded as a very important event on that day. Since the armored vehicle could not be brought from the place of the battle, it was destroyed. Thus, all the battles that Thevan went to ended in victory. Because he worked tirelessly for it. From spying to attacking, he stood up for everything. He would be satisfied only if he personally confirmed everything. In those days, there were few areas of complete control like now. Soldiers would infiltrate our area. On hearing the news, the teams would immediately organize themselves and rush to the field. The Sinhala forces would retreat in defeat. Our teams would also go on foot for long distances, attack, inflict damage on the enemy and return to base. God would go in the forefront in all these long journeys. He would achieve much in the battles.

This fighter had left the movement for a while in the name of self-interest. In 1997, Thevan got married. He took a woman named Suchithra as his wife. These days, the Thevan family lived in Iranaiiluppaikulam in Vavuniya. During 1999, the Sinhala army was advancing in these areas and encroaching on our lands. The pressures on the people living in the areas encroached by the Sinhala forces increased. Those identified by the soldiers were threatened to come to the army camp every day and sign. These threats made Thevan very angry.

Even though he is at home without a weapon in his hand, he makes decisions after seeing so many fields and befriending so many fighters and carrying those memories in his mind. No one would kneel before the soldiers. From that day on, Thevan’s life in hiding began. At that time, he had no connection with the movement. Although he went into hiding, he did not have any weapons for self-defense. Initially, all he had was a knife. When he tried to contact the fighters, he could not get any contact. Thevan was looking for a weapon. His efforts got a “moment”. Using it, he attacked the soldiers and tried to seize a weapon. And he got in contact with the fighters. As soon as Thevan went hiding, the Sinhala soldiers searched for him. They went to Thevan’s house and threatened his wife. As the military’s harassment increased, she and her child went hiding with Thevan.

How difficult is life hiding with a child. Every night there was a crisis for them. But despite those crises, she cooperated with Thevan´s plans. The fighters who went into Vavuniya informed their headquarters of Thevan´s will and obtained permission to join him. Thevan knows all the towns of Vavuniya well. Every nook and cranny of those towns is familiar to him. The ambushes were seen. They began to harass the enemy by hiding in the enemy’s thicket. Even though there was always a threat to their lives from the enemy at any moment, his wife and child lived a life of hiding.

For some time, they experienced all the hardships of hiding. While enduring these hardships, his wife and child were spying on the attack that Thevan was going to carry out. She would carry the child and observe the location of the army garrisons, the weapons they had, the number of soldiers stationed there, and then give it to Thevan. This information is verified with intelligence gathered by the fighters and then the attack takes place.

This is how the attack carried out by Thevan at the Iranaiiluppai pond was spied on. On the morning of the day the attack was to take place, Thevan’s wife also provided the spies. According to the intelligence information, a surprise attack was carried out on the Sinhala forces that had set up a guard there. The attack was successful as planned. Five soldiers were killed. Four guns and other items were captured. In the surprise attack led by Thevan on the soldiers who were coming to bathe in the pond in the Dakshanamruthamadu area, more than four soldiers were killed. Weapons were also captured. In this way, Thevan’s attacks took place in many areas such as Dakshanamruthamadu, Mullikulam, Madu, and Palampitiya. If Thevan were to go to war, the fighters would come forward in competition. Because they had faith in Thevan.

When he planned the battles, he would plan well in such a way that he could successfully carry out the attack without losses. He would stand first on the field. He will make decisions according to the circumstances and lead the battlefields skillfully. Any fighter who goes to war with Thevan will agree to go. Thevan has achieved such feats in war. Only the brave will win the war. Thevan is brave. He became the owner of victories.

A “Claymore” attack carried out by Thevan is a testament to his courage. A place was found, and a day was fixed for the “Claymore” attack on the soldiers patrolling in armored vehicles. The place chosen by Thevan was completely unfavorable for carrying out the attack.

Even if there was a small mistake in the attack, all those who went to the attack would undoubtedly be killed by the enemy on the spot. Therefore, the fighters advised him not to choose this place. There were only small holes in the place. If he stood up, there was a high possibility that he would be immediately identified by the enemy. All these were minor problems for Thevan. He was determined to carry out this attack at this location. He also took the responsibility of operating the “Claymore” detonator himself. He made the fighters who went with him take position and from a small shelter, he observed the vehicle and detonated the “Claymore”. He observed the losses of the soldiers from within that small shelter without any anxiety. More than 18 Sinhala soldiers were killed in this attack. The enemy was angry with these successful attacks by Thevan.

The enemy was trying to kill Thevan somehow. One day, when Thevan’s family was in a hiding place, the Sri Lankan army surrounded them. Thevan’s child came in a green uniform and thought that they were fighters and went towards them. The situation had now become desperate. The two could not escape leaving the child. They made an immediate decision. After telling Thevan to run away, his wife revealed herself to the soldiers. The Sri Lankan army beat and tortured her. They threatened to show Thevan where he was. What they thought did not happen. They called her mother and told not to send her with Thevan anymore and handed her over. Thevan faced many such crises.

At one point in his life in the field, he was severely injured and suffered a fever. The situation was so dire that they thought he could not escape. The news that Thevan had been bitten by a snake somehow reached the ears of the soldiers. They celebrated happily, thinking that Thevan would die now. But Thevan escaped.

Thevan was ordered to come to our control area for an operation. But Thevan refused. Since he had been away from the movement for some time, he insisted that he would come only after achieving a lot in the fighting. He came to the Vannithalam of the LTTE only after he was again insisted that he must come. In October 1999, Thevan’s family reached Vannithalam night after night, overcoming many obstacles through the enemy’s guard. Thevan spent most of his days after this in the Vavuniya Army Valwalappu area. He carried out many attacks that troubled the soldiers from there. THevan always liked fighting. He would lead the fighters under him accordingly.

After his family came to the Vanni, they were protected, so he wanted to spend all his time with the fighters. Even when he goes home, he says, “I don’t know what’s going on there,” and leaves. When asked, “Is your service as fighter fulfilled?” he says, “I want to fight and die a hero’s death, that’s my wish.” He keeps talking about fighting, saying, “When my children grow up, I will teach them to fight and they too will start fighting, so I can retire from fighting.”

From his time in the Indian Army to the present, Thevan has faced many battlefields. Thevan has faced many battlefields, including troop movements, ambushes, attacks on garrisons, attacks on anti-nationals, and sea battles when he was in the Naval Team of the LTTE for a short time. He has faced more than 55 battlefields and has achieved great feats. During these long field achievements, he has been wounded many times. The scars all over his body are testimony. There were scars on his head, shoulder, chest, lungs, thighs, and legs. He never considered these scars as a matter of course. Thevan was a hero who achieved a lot not only for his motherland but also with his wife and child, who were not fighters. A warrior. Family is not a burden to fight in the field. Thevan proved that it is a support.

In his last days, he served as the area officer in Manalaru district. He worked hard here too to fulfill his duty properly. This hero was killed in a direct clash with the enemy in Manalaru on 29.03.2007. The seeds will sprout with new strength. That strength will always protect this nation.