Selvarasa Pathmanathan

Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam (; alias Selvarasa Pathmanathan, Kumaran Pathmanathan, or simply KP; born 6 April 1955) He was arrested on 5 August 2009.

Early life Little information is available on Pathmanthan's early life. He was born Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam on 6 April 1955 in the town of Kankesanthurai in the Jaffna District of Ceylon.

Aliases Pathmanathan is known to use more than 23 aliases and masks. In addition, his last name can be spelled as Padmanadan or Pathmanaban or Pathmanadan or Pathmanathan, hence there are numerous variations of his name.

Involvement in LTTE

Fund raising activities Pathmanathan was one of the top LTTE officials and the chief procurer of arms for the organization. He ran a global network of LTTE offices which were engaged in its weapons procurement, logistics and money laundering operations.

Initially based in Malaysia, where he set up a shipping company in 1987, he was forced to move out after the Malaysian Special Branch cracked down on LTTE activities in the country in 1990, culminating in the seizure of an LTTE ship the same year. There he established himself as the head of banking, procurement and shipping for the LTTE. He is believed to have obtained citizenship in Thailand. Apart from setting up a number of lucrative businesses in Thailand, Pathmanathan established a state-of-the-art boatyard in the country, which manufactured over a dozen different boats, including mini-submarines and suicide boats.

The heads of both departments operated under the direct guidance of the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and intelligence head Pottu Amman, both of whom were also on the Interpol most wanted list. The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) approached 23 countries in 2001 requesting information regarding LTTE members who they believed were linked with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Sweden, where Pathmanathan was believed to be hiding at the time, was one of the countries. He was LTTE's chief international spokesman during the last months of the civil war. He urged Prabhakaran who was trapped in the No Fire Zone to escape and promised that he could break the naval blockade. Prabhakaran did not directly talk with KP due to suspicions that the military intelligence was monitoring his communications. He also talked to Charles Anthony who instead requested more weapons. KP attempted to hire a helicopter with Ukrainian mercenary pilots but could not arrange the funds from Scandinavian agents. It was also doubted if a rescue of the LTTE leadership was even possible as a previous attempt by the Sea Tigers to break through the naval blockade resulted in a disaster with only two suicide craft making it past the first line of Arrow boats only to be destroyed by the Dvoras of the second line. Further the land routes were surrounded and constant air patrols monitored the air space.

Leader of the LTTE Pathmanathan was left as the most senior LTTE member following the death of most of the LTTE's leadership, including Prabhakaran, in the final stages of the civil war. On 21 July 2009 a statement was issued, allegedly from the executive committee of the LTTE, stating that Pathmanathan had been appointed leader of the LTTE.

Pathmanathan claimed to a Channel 4 interview that he has 1500-2000 LTTE members hiding in the jungles of Sri Lanka who had ceased hostilities for now but are awaiting his orders to restart the war.

Fugitive status Pathmanathan was the subject of a worldwide manhunt, which involved police from cities including Johannesburg, Yangon, Singapore and Bangkok. Some of the world's foremost intelligence agencies, including the American CIA, India RAW and British MI5, were on his trail.

Known as an elusive, secretive individual, he helped keep a low profile by having direct contact only with LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Thai immigration officers claimed that no such person had entered the country in the last two years. but this was denied by Thai authorities. But it was later revealed that he had been arrested by Sri Lankan State Intelligence Service agents and a covert Sri Lankan military intelligence unit, with the cooperation of local authorities, in the Tune Hotel, downtown Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Sri Lankan Government announced on 7 August that he had been brought to Colombo. Sources have termed him "crucial" to the uncovering of various Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam crime networks.

After his arrest he began cooperating with the Sri Lanka government. On 9 July 2010, Pathmanathan established the North-East Rehabilitation and Development Organization (NERDO), a Non-Governmental Organization for the provision of relief to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) while upgrading facilities for better physical, mental and living conditions for them. In October 2012, media sources reported that Pathmanathan was being released from custody, quoting the head of Media Center for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle. Later he rejected the reports by saying Pathmanathan who is under special protection was permitted to engage in his NGO work and has not been released as claimed by media.