From Udaipur killing to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination: How radical groups plan an attack

The modus operandi of the Udaipur killing, made us revisit the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the strategies taken by the LTTE for eliminating him.

India Today’s investigation into the past of the two assailants, Riyaz Attari and Mohammad Ghaus, who killed the tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, in Udaipur revealed how they had tried to sneak into the BJP’s Rajasthan unit for at least three years.

The modus operandi of the recent incident, made us revisit the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the strategies taken by the LTTE for eliminating him. The May 1991 attack in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur, a location close to 50km from the capital city, Chennai, was one that shook the nation.

Before the 1991 blast, LTTE leaders were well received in the state. Senior political analysts recollected how the political diaspora and the general public both used to see the LTTE back then. The sufferings of the Sri Lankan Tamils were an issue close to the heart of the people and support for the demand for Tamil rights in Sri Lanka was also widely echoed.

The analyst said that the LTTE used to strategically invest in different places and indirectly used people without their knowledge to gain access to things that they wanted. Even in the case of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, the LTTE had strategically used friendships with Congress leaders and workers to gain access to the event and proximity to the target.

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On the day of May 21, 1991, it was sheer luck of the LTTE that Rajiv Gandhi participated in the Sriperumbudur event, recollects senior journalist GC Shekhar, who was present at the spot during the blast. He said, "Rajiv Gandhi's initial schedule did not include Sriperumbudur. He was to go to Mayiladuthurai to campaign for Manishankar Iyer. His private chopper witnessed some technical snag in Vishakapatnam and he could not take off."

Shekhar adds that the LTTE had also executed another clever plan - a sense of non-threat from their end. "To give an impression to the Congress, especially Rajiv Gandhi, that LTTE posed no threat to his return to power, they sent a delegation of SL Tamils, led by Kasi Anandan, who is a known LTTE sympathiser and a special meeting was held where Rajiv was told that SL Tamils are looking forward to his return to power. So that sort of dulled LTTE into thinking that they were not a threat to him.”