On this page, We are going to learn about the full form of LTTE and the meaning of LTTE, As well as the meaning, definition, and acronym for LTTE in different categories. So you should read this post till the end.
The Full Form of LTTE – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
LTTE Stands for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were a separatist militant group centered in northern Sri Lanka.
This violent separatist movement in Sri Lanka aimed to unite northern and eastern Sri Lanka to form an independent Tamil state. It was started in May 1976 by Vellupillai Prabhakaran.
Actually, LTTE was banned in India after the Murders of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.
History of LTTE
- Sri Lanka in the 1970s was deeply troubled by the economic reforms implemented in the north and east. Tamil people dominated this area.
- During this period the demand for a separate Tamil state by the Tamil people gradually gained momentum.
- In 1972 Velupillai Prabhakaran started an organization called Tamil New Tiger which involved young school children.
- The organization was renamed Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam in 1976. In 1976, the LTTE became famous as a notorious organization by carrying out the Vilikade massacre.
- The LTTE became famous as the world’s most dangerous suicide bomber whose fighters carried cyanide capsules in amulets.
- Suicide squads led by Prabhakaran have repeatedly targeted the Sri Lankan military and political leaders.
- By the 1980s, the LTTE started receiving support from abroad. LTTE had the money for buying arms and other activities from Tamils living abroad. Most of these were Tamil people living in countries of Western Europe and North America and Australia.
- The organization had its international headquarters in London until the LTTE was banned by Britain in 2001, but the LTTE office in Paris handled most of the work until 2002.
- In the year 2000, the US State Department included the LTTE on the list of terrorist organizations, while after that many other countries also banned the activities of LTTE and the collection of funds by its supporters.
- There was pressure on the LTTE from the international community to renounce the path of violence and solve its problem through dialogue.
- In 1985, the first attempt at peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil rebels failed.
- In 1987, government forces pushed back Tamil rebels in the northern city of Jaffna.
- The government signed an agreement under which new councils were to be formed in Tamil-dominated areas.
- Here the Sri Lankan government also had an agreement with India, under which India’s peacekeeping force was deployed there in 1987.
- In 1988, the Left faction and the Sinhalese nationalist party Janata Vimukti Paramona launched a campaign against the India-Sri Lanka Accord.
- In 1990, the Indian Army withdrew from there in view of the conflict in the northern region. Violence between the Sri Lankan army and the separatist Tamil rebels escalated but the LTTE was not so weak.
- He used the invention of the suicide belt and suicide bombing as his strategy.
- In 1991, former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide attack in Tamil Nadu, for which Tamil rebels were held responsible.
- This was followed by a period of Prabhakaran’s talks with the Sri Lankan government. The process of giving up arms started in the year 2002. The road connecting Jaffna to the rest of Sri Lanka opened after 12 years.
- The first round of talks began in Thailand. The two sides exchanged prisoners of war for the first time. The Tamil rebels dropped the demand for a separate state which was a major event.
- In the Norwegian peace talks in December this year, the two sides agreed on power-sharing and autonomy for minority Tamils in the predominantly Tamil-speaking northeastern region.
- In 2003, the next round of peace talks took place in Berlin in February, but in April, Tamil rebels withdrew from the peace talks, saying they were being ignored.
- Sri Lankan troops launched an offensive against the Tigers after the utter failure of the 2006 peace process. The government defeated the LTTE and took control of the entire country.
- Their victory over the Tigers was declared by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 16 May 2009 and the LTTE conceded defeat on 17 May 2009.
- On May 19, 2009, the army killed the rebel leader Prabhakaran, with which the end of the LTTE was assumed.
- Although still its remaining leaders are spread in many countries of the world who want to build this organization once again.
List of LTTE terrorist attacks
- LTTE had started carrying out terrorist activities since its formation.
- In 1983, the LTTE ambushed 13 soldiers of the Sri Lankan army, killing them. After this, anti-Tamil riots broke out in which hundreds of people died.
- The LTTE carried out large attacks in a sequential manner. In 1985, in the Mahabodhi attack, LTTE killed 146 people in a monastery in Anuradhapura. Apart from this, in 1987, LTTE killed 113 people in a bomb blast in Sri Lanka. This attack is remembered as the Colombo Central Bus Stand blast.
- The same year saw the Aluth Oya massacre in which LTTE killed 127 people of Sinhalese Buddhists, while in 1990 this separatist organization targeted the Kuttankudi mosque in which 147 people died.
- The LTTE assassinated former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and Ranasinghe Premadasa, the then President of Sri Lanka in 1993.
- In 1995, the LTTE attacked and shot down a Sri Lankan army aircraft. In the same year, LTTE sank two boats of the Sri Lanka Navy.
- In addition, during the so-called Third Eelam War from 1995 to 2001, LTTE separatists fought several battles with Sri Lanka. The then Prime Minister Chandrika Kumaratunge was attacked and she narrowly escaped.
- In 2004, LTTE carried out a suicide attack in Colombo.
- In August 2005, the LTTE assassinated Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Laxman Kadirgamar, following which a national emergency was declared in Sri Lanka.
- In the year 2006, LTTE once again carried out a major incident. The attack, also known as the Digampataya massacre, killed 120 sailors while targeting the Sri Lankan army.