INDIA: SRI LANKAN MILITANT BELIEVED TO HAVE MASTERMINDED KILLING OF FORMER INDIAN PRIME MINISTER RAJIV GANDHI, COMMITS SUICIDE

Record ID: 378150

  • Title: INDIA: SRI LANKAN MILITANT BELIEVED TO HAVE MASTERMINDED KILLING OF FORMER INDIAN PRIME MINISTER RAJIV GANDHI, COMMITS SUICIDE
  • Date: 21st August 1991
  • Summary: BANGALORE, INDIA (AUGUST 19/20, 1991) (AUGUST 19) 1. GVS LIT WINDOWS OF HOUSE INHABITED BY SIVARASAN AND SOUND OF GUNFIRE 0.16 (AUGUST 20) 2. GVS POLICE MOVE IN TOWARDS HOUSE (5 SHOTS) 0.29 3. GV/SV POLICE OUTSIDE HOUSE (2 SHOTS) 0.32 4. CUS ZOOM OUTS BODIES OF SIVARASAN AND SUBHA (2 SHOTS) 0.41 5. SV POLICE BRING OUT ANOTHER BODY ON STRETCHER 0.44 6. GV PAN POLICE AND ONLOOKERS AROUND SIVARASAN HOUSE AND SURROUNDING AREA 0.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th September 1991 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BANGALORE, INDIA
  • Country: India
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5IA755OUFVW2WUL7RW72BDKXM
  • Story Text: BANGALORE, INDIA

    Indian commandos on Tuesday (August 20) stormed the hideout of the Sri Lankan militant believed to have masterminded the killing of Rajiv Gandhi, only to find he had committed suicide.

    The special commando team from New Delhi blew the door off a house on the outskirts of the southern city of Bangalore early on Tuesday, where Sivarasan, known as "one-eyed Jack", was found dead with a bullet through his temple. Six others, including Subha, a woman thought to have been a member of the team that assassinated the former Indian prime minister in May, appeared to have taken cyanide capsules.

    Thirty-two year old Sivarasan, identified by investigators as an intelligence officer of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had a 40,000 United States (U.S.) dollar (one million rupee) price on his head.

    Sivarasan's death would not halt the probe into Gandhi's assassination, detectives said. India has blamed the Tamil Tigers, who have fought a bloody eight-year war for an independent state in northern Sri Lanka, for the assassination.

    India believes the Tigers killed Gandhi because they feared his return to power. Gandhi had previously sent Indian troops to Sri Lanka to put down the Tamil uprising.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - PREM PRAKASH</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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