July 21, Colombo: Attorney General's Department of Sri Lanka yesterday informed the Supreme Court that the body of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suspect who had died in custody would be handed over on July 23 to the family for burial in his home town.

The detainee, 29-year-old Ganeshan Nimalaruban, who was injured during a hostage rescue operation at the Vavuniya prison, died on July 05 at the Ragama Hospital following his transfer from Vavuniya prison to Mahara Prison.

A police Special Task Force (STF) operation was launched on June 29 in Vavuniya prison to rescue three prison officials who were taken hostage by the LTTE suspects in the prison when the police tried to remove a detainee from the prison under a court order.

Nimalaruban and several other prisoners sustained injuries during the counter operation. Following the incident Vavuniya prison officials transferred all 28 LTTE prisoners to other prisons.

The postmortem of the deceased was carried out in Ragama hospital and the Ragama magistrate ordered the cremation to be carried out in Ragama area.

However, the parents of the deceased appealed to the Supreme Court seeking permission to take the remains to Vavuniya for last respects.

Nimalaruban, was arrested by Vavuniya police in 2009 and detained under suspicion of subversive acts. He has been a marketing agent before joining the LTTE.

Following Nimalaruban's death the leader of Sri Lanka's major Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan urged the government to pardon all the Tamil Tiger terrorist suspects, who he described as political prisoners, without prosecuting them.