Tamil Tiger chief Prabhakaran's parents in govt custody

The parents of the now dead Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran are in the "protective
custody" of the Sri Lankan government, a media report said Thursday.

Thiruvenkatam Velupillai (76) and his wife Parvathi (71) surrendered to the army several days
ago, The Island newspaper quoted a government official as saying.
They were reportedly among the civilians holed up in the no fire zone along the coast in
Mullaitivu district before the army launched its final assault against the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Prabhakaran and other LTTE leaders were killed May 18.
"Velupillai and Parvathi were among the early batch of Sri Lankan Tamils to go to India. They
settled in Tiruchi," the report said.
They returned to the LTTE zone in northern Sri Lanka in 2003, a year after the Tigers and Colombo
signed a Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement. Prabhakaran had fled their home in Jaffna way back
in 1972.
Prabhakaran's death and the decimation of the LTTE ended a dragging Tamil separatist conflict
that left some 90,000 people dead in Sri Lanka