Charles Anthony, Prabhakaran's heir dies young

Groomed by his father to take over the reins of LTTE after him, Charles Anthony, the eldest son of the outfit's chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, headed the 'Air Tigers' from the jungles of Wanni in Sri Lanka.

Anthony, 24, named after his father's close confidant who died battling the Sri Lankan forces in early 1980's, is reported to have secured an aeronautical engineering degree from a European country.

It is said that Parabahakaran groomed his son Anthony, whose body was found by forces today, to head the LTTE which he founded 30 years back on the plank of a separate nation for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Anthony started heading the Air Tigers, the air wing of LTTE, from early 2006 and was reported to have overseen the assembling of Czech-made Zlin-143 aircraft which the LTTE used to bomb key installation of the Sri Lankan army.

Anthony, is also reported to have piloted an aircraft which bombed Katunayake Airforce base here in March 2007.

When the battle raged and LTTE started losing many of its strongholds in the north, Prabhakaran and Charles took control of the Tamil Tiger's military wing and directed the fighters.

Anthony reportedly led a battalion of the LTTE when it almost lost all its major strongholds including Killinochi and Mullaitivu. He was also reportedly injured after the fall of Killinochi.

Anthony is reported to have been with Prabhakaran on the battlefront during the final phase of the war.

Though no one is sure about Prabhakaran's personal life, he got married to Madhi Vadhani on October 1, 1984 in Tirupporur near Chennai and has a daughter named Duwaraka -- two sons -- Charles Anthony and Balachandran.

While Charles was on the battlefront during the final phase of the war, the whereabouts of others are not known, but it is widely speculated that they are not in Sri Lanka.