Who is K.P

Kumaran Pathmanadan (Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam or simply KP; last name also spelt as Padmanadan or Pathmanaban; born April 6, 1955[1]) was formerly the chief procurer of arms for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the Tamil Tigers), a Sri Lankan militant organization. More recently, as head of the LTTE's Department of International Relations he has been the Tamil Tigers chief international spokesman. He is on Interpol's most wanted list for various charges related to arms smuggling, criminal conspiracy and is also wanted by Indian Police in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991.

There were conflicting reports from Thailand that Pathmanadan had been arrested on September 11, 2007, although Thai immigration officers later claimed that no such person had entered the country in the last two years.


Little information is available of his early life. He was born Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingam on April 6, 1955 in the town of Kankesanthurai in the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka. Pathmanadan, who can converse in Tamil, English, French and Sinhalese,[1] is known to have left Sri Lanka at 1983.

Pathmanadan is known to use at least 23 aliases and masks,[4] and has been on the Interpol most wanted list for a number of years for charges including criminal conspiracy and for the violation of the Indian Terrorist Act and the Indian Explosive Act.[1] He has also been implicated in several assassinations of political leaders. He is believed to have obtained citizenship of Thailand.