Kalaivani Rajaratnam in 1987 (aged 18)
Kalaivani Rajaratnam (26 July 1968-21 May 1991) was a female suicide bomber of the Tamil Tigers who killed Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi on 21 May 1991.
Biography[]
Kalaivani (circled) in LTTE video cassette
Kalaivani Rajaratnam was born on 26 July 1968 in Kaithady Nunavil, Sri Lanka to a family of Hindu Tamils; she was the daughter of a man named Rajaratnam who was alleged a fan of Nehru and inspired many youngsters, including Vellupillai Prabhakaran. Rajaratnam had two children from his first marriage, Vasugi and Sivavarman. His first wife died during the childbirth of Vasugi, when Rajaratnam was visiting tea estates in southern Jaffna. He remarried and had two other daughters, when Anuja and Kalaivani. In 1970, he developed asthma, and in late 1975, he died of asthma in Chennai,when Kalaivani was 7. Kalaivani studied until middle school in Batticaloa, however dropped out to join the LTTE. Kalaivani’s family hails from Kupukullai, a small village on the Jaffna peninsula which is not on any maps. She trained in Nainital and Dindigul during her teenage years. In 1991, she was sent to kill Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India in a suicide bombing in response to his deployment of Indian Army peacekeepers to the island during the Sri Lankan Civil War, heading to kill him at the village of Sriperumbudur (25 miles (ca. 40 km) from Chennai) while he was at a rally. When Kalaivani approached Gandhi with a garland, a police officer attempted to stop her, but Gandhi ordered the police officer to give everyone a chance to garland him. She garlanded Gandhi and then blew herself up with 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) of RDX explosives while bending down to touch his feet, killing Gandhi and at least 25 others. The LTTE denied responsibility for the assassination, and altered Kalaivani’s death certificate, claiming that she died in a skirmish with the Sri Lankan army in Weli Oya to prevent being held responsible. Her identity could be seen in an LTTE video cassette, she could be seen as a flag bearer.