Thangadurai | |
---|---|
Native name | தங்கத்துரை |
Born | N. Thangavelu |
Died | 25 July 1983 Colombo, Sri Lanka |
Years active | –1983 |
Organization | Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization |
Nadarajah Thangavelu (Tamil: நடராசா தங்கவேல்; died 25 July 1983; commonly known by the nom-de-guerre Thangadurai) was a Sri Lankan Tamil rebel and one of the founders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.
In 1969 a small group of militant Tamil youths from Valvettithurai formed an underground group. The group was known as the Thangadurai Group and was led by Thangadurai and Kuttimani. The group would later be known as the Tamil Liberation Organisation (TLO). Other members of the group included V. Prabhakaran, Sri Sabaratnam, Pon Sivakumaran, Periya Sothi, Chinna Sothi, Chetti and Kannadi.
The group would hold secret meetings at a professor's house in Point Pedro, collect weapons and build crude bombs. The group carried out various arson attacks and attempted assassinations and formed close ties with Tamil Nadu politicians and the Research and Analysis Wing, the Indian intelligence agency. In April 1971 Thangadurai and 15 others were making explosives at a school in Thondamanar when a bomb exploded, seriously injuring Chinna Sothi. The following year Thangadurai, Prabhakaran, Chinna Sothi and Vythilingam Nadesathasan (Nadesudasan) were burnt in a similar explosion. In March 1977 Thangadurai and Jegan shot dead police informant Thadi Thangarajah at his house in Kokuvil.
At a meeting in a Hindu temple in Thondamanaru in September 1977 Thangadurai formally established the organisation as the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), together with its military wing Tamil Eelam Liberation Army (TELA).