Charles

Who was Charles?

Shanmuganathan Ravishankar was a leading member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist Tamil militant organisation in Sri Lanka.

Ravishankar was from Point Pedro. He joined the LTTE in December 1985, whilst still at school, and took on the nom de guerre Charles. His first duty was to be a sentry near Point Pedro army camp after school. He abandoned his education in 1987. He then worked in a shop run by the LTTE. Charles' first armed combat was in May 1987 during the Vadamarachchi Operation in which the Sri Lankan military recaptured most of Vadamarachchi. He took part in the LTTE's retaliatory attack on the army camp at Nelliady Central College on 5 July 1987.

Charles then served under Captain Morris, the LTTE's commander for Point Pedro, taking part in operations against the Indian Peace Keeping Force. Charles then served in Manal Aru before returning to Jaffna peninsula. He was the LTTE's commander for Vadamarachchi when the IPKF withdrew to India in 1990.

Charles was introduced to the LTTE's intelligence head Pottu Amman by his body guard Kili. Pottu Amman chose Charles to prepare a base in southern Sri Lanka for attacks. Charles and some other intelligence operatives were sent to Colombo in early 1990. He returned to the north after war broke out again between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan military in June 1990. The LTTE then received intelligence that Deputy Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne and the Joint Operations Command were planning to assassinate LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran as he and his wife Mathivathani were praying at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Charles was sent back to Colombo in January 1991 to deliver the LTT's response to the assassination plot. Wijeratne was assassinated on 2 March 1991 and the Joint Operations Command building was blown up on 22 June 1991. Charles is alleged to have taken part in both attacks. He is also alleged to have taken part in the assassinations of Clancy Fernando; Lalith Athulathmudali; President Ranasinghe Premadasa; and Gamini Dissanayake, Ossie Abeygunasekera, Weerasinghe Mallimarachchi, G. M. Premachandra and Gamini Wijesekara. He is also alleged to have taken part in the attacks on the Kolonnawa fuel storage complex and Kelanithissa power plant. Charles is alleged to have masterminded the Central Bank bombing on 31 January 1996. Prabhakaran is alleged to have given Charles a Mitsubishi Pajero as a reward for the Central Bank attack.