Colombo, Dec. 13 (PTI): The assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a big mistake, the former Tamil Tiger commander, Karuna Amman, said.

Karuna Amman, whose real name is Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan, is the deputy minister of resettlement in the Sri Lankan government. He told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which is looking into the incidents of the ethnic war between the Tigers and the Lankan Army, that he received arms training in India in the early Eighties when he was with the LTTE.

Things changed when Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. India then turned against the Tigers and banned it, Karuna said. He denied responsibility for killing 600 policemen who had surrendered to the LTTE.