Click to play videoNew Delhi: On May 21, 1991, a suicide bomber of the Sri Lanka-based Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
assassinated India's former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur.
Fifteen years later, CNN-IBN travelled to the Tiger territory to find out the events that led to the assassination.
LTTE chief V Prabhakaran was angry with Rajiv for forcing an agreement on him — an agreement signed in the cover of darkness and denied later.
 LTTE wants peace with India |
| Tigers trained by Indian Army? |
| LTTE's de facto Eelam govt |
CNN-IBN Special Investigation team has accessed LTTE's version of the six dramatic days that preceded the signing of the India-Sri Lanka Accord. These documents have never been accessed before.
On July 23, 1987, a LTTE delegation led by Prabhakaran flew to New Delhi following an invitation from Rajiv.
J N Dixit, who was then India's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, gave Prabhakaran a draft of the India-Sri Lanka Accord and told him he had two hours to approve it.
Prabhakaran rejected the accord because it required LTTE to disarm within 72 hours after signing.
Between July 23-25, M K Narayanan, currently National Security Advisor and then director of the Intelligence Bureau, tried to persuade Prabhakaran but in vain.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M G Ramachandran also held discussions with Prabhakaran on July 26.
This round of talks failed too.
Then on the midnight of July 28, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officers woke Prabhakaran up and told him that Rajiv wanted to meet him.
It was the first time the two men met. A photograph of the meeting shows Rajiv with P Ramachandran, an associate of M G
Ramachandran, LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham and Prabhakaran.
According to Balasingham, this is what Rajiv told Prabhakaran: "You need not accept the agreement; what we are suggesting is that you shouldn't oppose it."
| LTT E wants peace with India |
| Tigers trained byIndian Army? |
| LTTE's de facto Eelam govt |
Rajiv proposed a secret agreement between India and the LTTE.
The Rajiv-Prabhakaran Pact proposed an LTTE-run interim administration in Tamil-dominated Sri Lanka comprising the northern and eastern parts of the country.
India promised to give Rs 50 lakh per month to fund the LTTE administration.
The LTTE claims Rajiv convinced Prabhakaran into a symbolic surrender of arms to convince Colombo and the world that the Tigers supported the India-Sri Lanka Accord.
Rajiv also assured Prabhakaran that the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) would protect both the rebels and civilians.
On July 29, post midnight, Prabhakaran demanded that the pact be made public.
But he was told that the proposed LTTE-run administration would be funded with black money which would be controversial.
Rajiv also asked Prabhakaran to "treat this as a gentleman's agreement."
On the afternoon of July 29, Rajiv and Sri Lankan President J R Jayawardene signed the India-Sri Lanka Accord in Colombo.
On August 5, 1987, the LTTE did a symbolic surrender of arms at the Palali Air Base in Jaffna.
But two months later, the accord was in tatters.
The promise that IPKF would protect the LTTE and Tamils was not followed.
Instead, India launched Operation Pawan to disarm the Tiger rebels.
Prabhakaran took this move by India as a 'great betrayal' and ensured that Rajiv Gandhi paid with his life for that.
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