One early morning, the Sinhala army surrounded a house in Navalar Road, Jaffna. The Sinhala army surrounded that house after receiving information that the LTTE fighters who were injured in the attack on Chavakacheri police station in October 1982 were being treated in it.

During the ensuing fire-fight, a youth who was firing at the army with his handgun, jumped over the surrounding wall and ran. The Sinhala troops fired furiously at him. A bullet tore through the youth's stomach.

Despite being severely injured, with the sole aim of evading capture by the enemy, the youth ran without stopping for two miles until he reached the safe-house of his fellow fighters. He handed over his handgun to his comrades and then collapsed, unconscious.

The severe loss of blood from his wound leaves the strong youth weakened.

These are early days of the liberation struggle, and there are no adequate medical facilities. First aid was urgently administered to him, and then his comrades took him to Tamil Nadu by sea. Avoiding the Sri Lankan military's search operations, it takes them a week to reach Tamil Nadu.

The youth stayed conscious until he was able to speak to Leader Pirabakaran in Tamil Nadu. However, his condition become critical and the efforts of his comrades to save his live were unsuccessful. As his leader and fellow fighters watched in tears, on 27 November 1982, he became the first LTTE fighter to die in combat.

Shankar (or Suresh) whose real name was S.Sathianathan, a man wanted by the Sinhala army.

Shankar's place of birth was Kamparmalai in Vadamaratchi. He was the college class mate of Capt. Pandithar (Raveendran) (Capt. Pandithar died two years after Shankar's death in a confrontation with the Sinhala forces in Achchuveli)

Shankar never knew fear. He became a guerrilla at the age of twenty. An explosives expert, he commanded an LTTE assault group. Despite being wanted by the Sinhala forces, he would boldly wander around the Tamil villages.

He was always continuously assessing his surroundings. He too extreme care as the slightest mistake would have endangered him and the liberation movement. He always believed that if surrounded by the enemy, he should die fighting.

He was contemptuous of members of other Tamil groups who called themselves liberation fighters surrendered to the enemy with their weapons.

Though quiet and soft-spoken, Shankar thought it cowardice to surrender to the enemy with a weapon. He felt that by when the enemy captured fighters with their weapons , especially in the early stages of the liberation struggle, it would embolden and encourage the enemy in his efforts to crush the struggle.

Shankar had achieved a considerable amount by the age of twenty one. When the Sinhala supremacist, J.R. Jayawardene boasted in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo that he could send boy scouts to crush the Tigers, Shankar responded by launching an attack on the Sri Lankan forces in Nelliady, inflicting heavy casualties.

Shankar firmly believed that we can achieve the liberation of Tamil Eelam if and only if the political and military leadership of the LTTE is unwavering. He lived and breathed the liberation struggle, and took up arms for it.

Pure of heart, he despised anti-social elements and opportunists. Liberation fighters with a similar discipline are evidence of the LTTE's purity.

Shankar grew under Pirabakaran's political guidance and military structure. He respected Pirabakaran's sincere politics. He always maintained that Tamil Eelam struggle should be led by genuine liberation fighters who do not have any self-interest.

Even at the moment of his death his dying words were not for his parents or relatives. His lips whispered "Thambi, Thambi". While Thambi (as Leader Pirabakaran was known to the fighters) and other LTTE fighters watched in tears he died.

Shankar had not finished the Russian novel "One True man's story" which he was reading last. However, the true man Shankar's story is another tale of courage.

Courtesy: 'Tamil Eelam', (Voice 17) November 1989 - A journal published by the Political Section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.