A Sri lankan Minister on Tuesday accused the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) of raping Tamil women during the lTTE war. The 48-year-old Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna, who was a former lTTE leader and now a deputy Minister in the Mahinda Rajpaksa Government, told the Parliament that the IPKF who conducted peacekeeping operations in Sri lanka between 1987 and 1990, had raped several Tamil women while also killing Tamil’s.
“There is evidence for that,” Muralitharan, who was then the lTTE’s feared eastern leader said. The IPKF was invited into north and eastern Sri lanka in terms of the Indo-lanka Accord of 1987.
Karuna brokeaway from the lTTE in 2004 to form his own movement and later his own political party. He was later allied with Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition to become a deputy Minister. He was also appointed a Vice-President of the dominant party in the ruling coalition, Sri lanka Freedom Party (SlFP). Meanwhile, the Opposition United National Party (UNP) said that Karuna, a terrorist leader has become a senior member of the SlFP.