LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s body after he was killed near the Nanthi Kadal lagoon, Sri Lanka, on May 19. (AFP)

Colombo, June 15 (PTI): LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was captured alive and “tortured” by the army before being shot dead in northern Wanni, a Jaffna-based human rights group has said in a report.

However, the Sri Lankan government has dismissed the report as “ridiculous”.

The University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-J) in a special report — A Marred Victory and a Defeat Pregnant with Foreboding — quoted “army sources” as saying that Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran was killed after capture.

The government has denied such suggestions.

Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother, rejected the reports attributed to UTHR and said there was “absolutely no truth” in the claims that Prabhakaran or any other “hardcore” terrorist was caught alive, The Island newspaper reported today.

Army chief General Sarath Fonseka and Major General Kamal Gunarathne also denied reports that Prabhakaran was captured alive.

They said the LTTE chief was killed during a battle nearthe Nanthi Kadal lagoon with dozens of LTTE fighters.

The UTHR report reveals the “constantly changing official versions” of Prabhakaran’s death and quoted high-level military sources as saying that “Prabhakaran was tortured probably at Division 53 HQ in the presence of a Tamil government politician and a general”.

“Several army sources have said that Prabhakaran’s (younger) 12-year-old son Balachandran was killed after capture. Our (sources) said that he was killed in front of his father,” said the report which has been critical of excesses both by the military and the LTTE.

“Our sources in addition to several others have said that all the LTTE persons remaining in the NFZ (no-fire zone) were massacred,” said the group that was formed in 1988 at the University of Jaffna “to document human rights violations by all forces”.

Among other things, the UTHR also said “the LTTE was defeated and the leader (Prabahakaran) was hiding behind the people hoping for a Congress defeat in India.”

The Island quoted “a senior officer who had been at Nanthi Kadal at the time of the recovery of the LTTE leader’s body” as saying that “troops found his body as President Mahinda Rajapaksa was making a special statement in Parliament on May 19”.

“He said that nothing could be as ridiculous as the claim that the Prabhakaran was probably tortured at the headquarters of the 53 Division in the presence of a Tamil government politician,” the officer said.