Non Sinhala Heroes Of “The Sinhala Army”

Back in the days of the war, there was a popular saying in the south; සිංහලයාට සති දෙකකින් සියල්ල අමතකය (Sinhalese tend to forget in two weeks). While we do not agree with this sentiment 100%, we as a nation do have a knack for forgetting the most important lessons taught to us by history. Velupille Prabhakaran used this to his gain, and judging by the way things are going, a common enemy will soon be able to spot and exploit this weakness in most Sri Lankans.

If you have listened to speeches or read blogs post, Facebook pages or forums maintained by so called patriots, you would have no doubt come across the following logic: “Sinhalese saved this country, therefore this country must be Sinhalese only”. The majority of soldiers in the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) were Sinhalese. Majority of the casualties in the war were Sinhalese soldiers. This is natural as it’s proportional to the total population of Sri Lanka, of which the majority are Sinhalese. However, that is not to say other races did not have a hand in defending Sri Lanka from oppressors. A small reminder to those that have forgotten :

Captain Shahul Hameed Nilam, Commanding Officer, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) – LRRP, also known as “The Mahasohon Brigade” was a deep penetration unit of SLA that operated behind enemy lines. The unit was classified and the SLA never officially acknowledged its existence. Under the leadership of Captain Nilam, it was responsible for the elimination of several high profile LTTE military leaders including the then air wing lead Colonel Shankar and deputy sea tiger commander Gangai Amaran. LRRP operations were a major factor in SLA victories throughout the Eelam wars as not only did they assassinate top leadership but their surprise attacks miles inside rebel held territory severely degraded the morale of LTTEs’ regular formations as well. Captain S. H. Nilam was the CO of LRRP back when the Millennium City raid happened. Due to classified information being revealed in the raid, Captain Nilam and his family were sent to Indonesia due to threats posed to his life by LTTE intelligence unit. Based in Indonesia, he worked to disrupt LTTE arms smuggling operations under the guidance of Major General Janaka Perera. Captain Nilam and his family once again disappeared following the removal of Janaka Perera as the Sri Lankan ambassador to Indonesia. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

Colonel Tuan Nizam Muthaliff, Commanding Officer, Military Intelligence Corps – Col. Muthaliff served under captain Nilam and was technically the deputy commander of the LRRP. He was a mastermind behind many successful DPU operations including several ops in the eastern province. He was also a major influence in rallying Tamil support for SLA’s cause and had built a strong intelligence network backed by paramilitaries of all races and religions. It was through this network the MIC received plenty of vital information which aided the SLA especially in the eastern theatre of battle. Col Muthaliff was hunted by LTTE intelligence units for three years after the millennium city leak and was assassinated by gunmen on May 2005.
Medals : Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Purna Bhumi Padakkama,  North and East Operations Medal, Operation Wadamarachchi Medal, Riviresa Campaign Services Medal, Sri Lanka Armed Services Long Service Medal, 50th Independence Anniversary Commemoration Medal

Wing Commander T.D.S. Silvapulle, Sri Lanka Air Force – Wing Command Sivapulle was a SLAF Mi-24 gunship pilot attached to the 9th attack helicopter squadron. He is best known for his heroic attempts engaging a sea tiger flotilla while knowing his chopper could get shot out of the air any moment. Several sea tiger boats were reinforcing an attack on SLA forward defence line south east of Elephant Pass and SLAF had dispatched two Mi-24 ‘Hind’ gunships to assist the army (This was back in 1999 when the tigers were armed with surface to air missiles). Instead of backing out, Wing Commander Silvapulle instructed the other gunship to disengage and unleashed his Mi-24 on sea tigers. LTTE could not withstand the attack and the boats were soon retreating from the area. Unfortunately, Wing Commander Silvapulles’ Mi-24 was hit by what is believed to be a surface to air missile fired from one of the LTTE boats - it crashed into the Kilali lagoon, killing its pilot, co-pilot and two gunners on board.
Medals : Parama Weera Vibhushanaya, Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Rana Sura Padakkama

Colonel A.F Lafir, Commanding Officer, 1st Special Forces Regiment – Colonel Fazly Lafir was a key figure behind the evolution of SLA Special Forces, which played a key role until the very last minutes of the Eelam war. SF evolved from a small combat tracker team formed in 1985 and had grown into a fully fledged battle formation with 4 regiments, several LRRP teams and an urban fighting squadron by 2012. It achieved this feat through the sacrifices made by founding officers such as A.F. Lafir. Colonel Lafir is best known for his heroics in Operation Thrividha Pahara, where he and 275 other special forces units from 1SF volunteered to try and secure a beachhead near SLA’s Mullathivu base which was about to be overrun by an LTTE force numbering 4000. In the first step of the mission, Colonel Lafir and 137 other SF units helidropped amidst heavy enemy fire and continued fighting their way inside LTTE held area. Col Lafir continued leading the attack through the night even after receiving multiple gunshot wounds from small arms fire. He was KIA on 19th July 1996 after being hit by an LTTE mortar. For his heroic actions in the mission Col. Lafir was awarded the Parama Weera Vibhushana medal, the highest award given for gallantry in Sri Lanka Army.
Medals : Parama Weera Vibhushanaya, Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Rana Sura Padakkama

Inspector N.M. Nilabdeen, Sri Lanka Police – Inspector Nilabdeen is probably the best counter terrorism officer Sri Lanka has ever seen. A veteran at extracting intelligence and counter intelligence tactics, he arrested numerous LTTE operatives including black tigers and recovered large quantities of weapons and ammunition the LTTE had smuggled into Colombo. His actions without a doubt saved hundreds of innocent civilian lives and prevented millions of rupees worth of property damage. Inspector Nilabdeen had to leave the country due to threats to his life from LTTE intelligence units. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

These are not the only non Sinhala heroes that made sacrifices to save this country. This is just a small preview of a long list of names that should include the likes of Lakshman Kadiragamar, Brigadier A.W. Thambiraja and hundreds of nameless and faceless Tamil and Muslim informants that supplied critical information to the SLA risking their lives in the process.

The objective of this article was not to glorify or undermine a particular race or religion. This is just a reminder to racist organizations, blogs and social media pages that are trying to promote the flawed theory “Sinhalese saved this country, therefore this country must be Sinhalese only”. Soldiers of all races and religions gave their lives to defend Sri Lanka from oppressors. SLA did not care about the race or religion of its soldiers – why should you? What won us the war was not the army of a single race, it was the army of Sri Lanka.

While you keep up the infighting, a common enemy regroups in Tamil Nadu. Keep this in mind – “United as one, divided by zero”.

DefenceNet ReArmed – War Against Racism

To anyone still reading this blog :

On 19th May 2009, we thought we had published the last post on DefenceNet. A war that plagued Sri Lanka for three decades ended that day. And back then, we hoped against hope we would never have to update this blog ever again. Sadly, a time has come to re-arm DefenceNet, this time to fight a much bigger enemy than the LTTE; racism.

It is no secret that a newfound set of heroes have taken it upon themselves to save the country yet again. Forward Defence Lines of these warriors are not located in Muhamalai or Nagarkovil. They are based on online forums such as Facebook. Through social media pages full of racism and religious hatred, these anti-heroes now trying to start another war; to “cleanse” the country of other religions and races than their own. These Facebook pages and blog posts shamelessly uses images of SLA soldiers to promote their selfish cause. In addition, these extremist groups have also descended to employing scare tactics to drive away people flocking to businesses managed by certain nationalities ( For example – Egg throwing threats against those who try to attend stores such as Nolimit). This in our opinion borderlines on terrorism.

Disclaimer: The writer of this article is a Sinhala Buddhist. As someone closer to the SLA than any of you can imagine, I can say this with pride; The Sri Lanka Army won this country for you. You had just one job; keep the peace. And you are now failing this task. If you have any questions as to where DefenceNets loyalties lie, just browse through our old posts and see how we reported on the war. We are not an NGO. We are not some foreign conspiracy. We were there when true heroes of the nation fought for this country and won it, and when we saw that it needs saving yet again from racists, we have risen again.

Before you share the next racist post on Facebook (or any other medium), ponder this : The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was a racist organization. They wanted one country for one race. Where are they now?

Is Velupillai Prabhakaran alive?

No.

Click here to see video.

Note: images may be disturbing. Credit to original uploader.

The End

The war as we know it, is over. The conventional fighting force once known as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and it's elusive leader has been eliminated.

It remains to be seen whether or not the LTTE can survive as a guerrilla outfit, carrying out random terrorist attacks in the country. This however is unlikely now with the top tiger leadership being killed by the army.

"Awi gaththo awiyenma nasithi - those who live by the sword, die by the sword"

History in the making

The Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has just completed the largest hostage rescue mission in modern times with outstanding success. Last of the civilian human shield that protected the LTTE leadership thus far is now being evacuated from the conflict zone as we speak. Irresponsible international media reports that maintain 30000 civilians are still trapped inside LTTE held territory will soon have to eat their words. DefenceNet can confirm that almost all civilians held hostage by the tigers have now been rescued by the army. Search & rescue operations are continuing in search of the injured who are unable to move out.

Several tiger armories located in the new war zone close to civilian shelters are now blaze. The LTTE controlled territory in Mullaithivu district has now shrunk to less than 1square kilometer.

False propaganda reaches new heights as LTTE faces imminent defeat

With Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam facing imminent defeat at the hands of the Sri Lanka Army, tiger propaganda machines have kicked into high gear, screaming about civilian massacres by SLA. The very same web sites that used to boast about military victories by LTTE in the not so distant past have now turned into whinefests calling on the international community to save the civilians. Official online mouthpiece of the LTTE, Tamilnet.com is now full of fabricated stories and doctored photographs along with some staged drama.

Anyway DefenceNet can confirm that SLA had suspended all shelling and heavy weapons fire by now. However, limited air strikes had been continuing until recently but the targets were highly fortified LTTE hideouts where no civilian is permitted to go. Any shelling on the very small uncleared area surrounded by SLA units at this point would cause casualties due to friendly fire anyway.

Troops capture grounded ship Farah-3

A major headache for the army ended today with the capture of the grounded Ship Farah – 3 located around 500m from the Kariamulliwaikkal coastline. The wrecked ship has been used as cover by LTTE units for so long and has been a priority target of the army. Although the ship was subjected to an aerial raid by SLAF and was rendered unusable, LTTE cadres had used heavy machine guns and other medium caliber weapons installed on the ship to assault incoming SLA units. Farah –3 was a merchant vessel that ran into trouble in seas near LTTE held territory back in 2008 – the crew was rescued by the navy.

Meanwhile two loud explosions were reported from the civilian safe zone today evening. The source of the explosions and the damages to any LTTE units/civillians is not known as of yet.

Tigers sink to a new low as endgame nears

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) identify themselves as freedom fighters and as sole representatives of Tamil people. Their actions however depict them only as terrorists. After cowering behind thousands of civilians in the government declared safe zone, tigers have sunk to a new low.  Their latest tactic – shed the LTTE uniforms, disguise as civilians and fire at the incoming troops while hiding inside civilian tents. Either way the LTTE military machine has no hope for survival as these tactics will prove useless against elite troops of the SLA who are highly trained at hostage rescue and anti hijack missions.

SLA is now in a position to deploy over 6000 elite troops to the rescue mission if the need arises. This figure includes units from 4 brigades of the special forces regiment and 4 brigades of the commando regiment and does not include units from the Air Mobile Brigade and the Mechanized Infantry Brigade. Further information pertaining ongoing military operations cannot be revealed at this time.

Meanwhile the total number of civilians rescued from the grips of LTTE has risen close to 200000. Although the government is doing their best , it’s no secret that attending the needs of over 107000 new IDPs is a herculean task. So please do whatever you can to help these fellow Sri Lankans who are in greater need than most of us. Food, medicine, clothes or anything else that you donate will help fulfill the basic needs of innocents who have suffered countless days of starvation and oppressions at the hands of Tamil tigers. You are more than welcome to use the comments section of this article to share info of/organize relief attempts.

Troops rescue over 30000 civillians as suicide tigers attack

The Sri Lankan Army has rescued over 30000 civilians forcibly held by the LTTE within the course of a single day. This is the largest number of civilians freed in a single day in the history of the Eelam War. There are however heavy civilian casualties as three Liberation Tigers suicide bombers detonated themselves in a bid to halt the mass exodus. The civilian crossover was triggered when SLA units took control of a 2.5km long earth bund at Puthumathalan early morning today. In addition to 30k civilians who crossed over via land, over 1000 who escaped via the sea route were rescued by the SLN. Article will be updated later today..

Several photos of dead LTTE leaders released

Since some of our readers were skeptical about the claims in previous article on senior LTTE leaders being annihilated by the army, here are some photographic proof to back up those claims. More pictures will be released to the media once preliminary investigations by a special MI team are over.

LTTE Special Commander Theepan – Top right corner of the image shows Theepan with members of the SLMM (taken several years ago)

Commander of LTTE’s Malathi brigade – Colonel Vidusha – Top left corner of the image shows Vidusha at an LTTE ceremony back in the good old days  

Photographs were captured from the SLRC new video uploaded to YouTube by lkwebnews. Full video can be found here.