Karuna Amman

On 19 June 2020, Karuna made a publicity stunt by making a revelation that he was even cruel and merciless than the COVID-19 virus saying "I am dangerous than coronavirus. Corona killed 11 people but I killed 2000-3000 soldiers within one day." He stated that he killed more than 3000 soldiers at the Elephant Pass during the war and claimed that he was more dangerous than the COVID-19 related fatalities in the country. His insensible comments drew widespread criticism from political fraternity calling him a barbarian and he was summoned to appear before the Criminal Investigation Department to record statements according to the order by acting DGP C. D. Wickramaratne.

After giving up arms and entering politics, he was appointed as a National List Member of Parliament in 2008 for the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the party of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and was sworn in as Minister of National Integration on 9 March, 2009. He later joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent party of the UPFA, and on 24 April 2009 he was appointed as a Vice President of the SLFP.

Karuna confessed in court that the government, through permanent Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa, had given him the passport. On 25 January 2008, he was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was transferred to an immigration detention centre in May 2008.

A number of human rights groups, led by Amnesty International, urged the Metropolitan Police to investigate Karuna for war crimes including torture, hostage-taking and recruitment of child soldiers. The Met Police did not respond and Karuna returned to Sri Lanka on 3 July, 2008.

In March 2007, Colonel Karuna, accompanied by Supreme Commander Pillaiyan, Senior Commander Jeyam and other TVMP officials spent two days at a TMVP base in the east. A number of his statements there were widely reported.

Karuna was arrested in London on 2 November 2007, following a joint operation between the Metropolitan Police and the Border and Immigration Agency. It is thought that Karuna was found in possession of a forged passport and firearms. According to the Sunday Times, a weekly English newspaper published in Sri Lanka, the British authorities claimed that they had enough evidence to show that the Sri Lankan government was complicit in helping Karuna receive a diplomatic passport.

However Karuna's group, dubbed the Karuna Faction by the media, continued to maintain a stronghold in the southeast of Sri Lanka with a force estimated to number a few hundred. The group regularly got into clashes with the LTTE. In 2006, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces launched a major campaign to evict the LTTE from the east of the country, with the assistance of the Karuna Faction. Together the coalition succeeded in clearing the east of Sri Lanka by July 2007.

On 26 July 2004, Karuna broke away from the Tamil Tigers after he alleged they were ignoring the interests of the eastern Tamil people, and claimed to have renounced violence. The move by Karuna to break away from the LTTE and renounce armed struggle was considered one of the major turning points of the Sri Lankan Civil War that would eventually bring about the end of the 25 year-long conflict. Muralitharan joined forces with the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to capture LTTE bases. Former Deputy Minister Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana has been hailed as being instrumental in convincing Karuna to renounce militarism, who in turn joined the democratic mainstream.

The LTTE claimed that the real reason for Karuna's defection was because the LTTE's intelligence wing was closing in on him for alleged financial and personal misconduct, terming his break a "temporary aberration". The Tigers reacted to his defection by launching attacks against Muralitharan's forces, and heavy clashes ensued. They claimed to have fully evicted his forces from the area he controlled by mid-2004.

Colonel Karuna was the LTTE head of the Eastern Province in 1990 when 600 unarmed police officers who surrendered to the group were subsequently massacred.

Muralitharan was born in Kiran, a village in the Batticaloa district in eastern Sri Lanka to Vinayagamoorthy, an agriculturist from the Vaisyas Caste (Farming and Business Community). He joined the LTTE in 1983 and became a top commander in the Eastern Province. He was formerly a bodyguard to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (nom de guerre: Colonel Karuna Amman; Tamil: விநாயகமூர்த்தி முரளிதரன், Vināyakamūrtti Muraḷitaraņ, born 22 June 1966) is a Sri Lankan politician and former militant. Formerly a fighter for the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), for over 20 years, Muralitharan later rose to prominence after defecting from the LTTE and forming the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the LTTE.

Upon his return to Sri Lanka, Karuna entered democratic politics and joined the SLFP alongside 1750 other ex-LTTE members. Karuna praised then-incumbent president Mahinda Rajapaksa, claiming that the Black July riots would not have happened if Rajapaksa was in power during the period. Karuna was then sworn in as Minister of National Integration.