Click to play videoNew Delhi: It's perhaps the most critical phase in the war in Sri Lanka. Having captured LTTE headquarters Killinochi the Sri Lankan army now claims that they are advancing towards the LTTE's bastion in Mullathivu.
However, pro-LTTE websites claim that the Tigers are offering stiff resistance. They claim that the Tigers have killed 53 army personnel when they stopped an offensive - a claim the army denies.
But deep down the army knows that till they get to LTTE chief Vellupillai Pirabhakaran, the war against the Tigers is far from over.
Pirabhakaran has eluded the Sri Lankan army for decades and yet surfaces in videos often. Even the Indian Peace Keeping Force, which went to Sri Lanka in 1987, failed to capture him.
IPKF Col (retd) Hariharan says, "We tried. We reached Pirabhakaran twice but, when we reached his camp, he had decamped. Afterwards I went to see the camp, he had left everything and gone."
Pirabhakaran was trained in India and till the mid 1980's lived in and out of Tamil Nadu, but all that changed after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. He's now a proclaimed offender in India and prime accused in the case and India says Sri Lanka must extradite him if he's found.
India's Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon says, "We have consistently sought Prabhakaran's extradition."
The Sri Lankan army hopes that the ageing guerilla who suffers from diabetes is not as agile as he was in his prime. They claim that Pirabhakaran is restricted to the Mullathivu Jungles in the island nation. But whether that's true or not is still being debated.
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