A veteran report's accounts

Pathmanathan was staying in Kuala Lumpur when he was taken into a custody, according to an online report of a veteran Tamil-born Canadian journalist, DBS Jeyaraj.

Pathmanathan was meeting with two visitors from London in at a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday (August 5) when his cellular phone rang.

He received the call and then signaled to his visitors that he was going out to the corridor and walked away while conversing on the phone.

He had not returned for a long time and when the worried visitors from Britain went out in search there was no sign of the new global tiger chief.

The online reports quoted the friend who had been talking with him on the phone had heard a sudden thud and some noise while chatting.

The phone went dead and repeated calls were not successful. The friend then alerted his assistants in Malaysia who went in search of him where he was staying. The place was empty but his insulin and syringes and other medical stuff was still there.

The online claimed that the Tamil leader was taken to Bangkok, Thailand. Sri Lankan authorities were then contacted and a team from the Police Terrorist Investigation Department flew to Bangkok in the early hours of Thursday (August 6).

The team returned with Pathmanathan on a special flight on the same day. KP was handcuffed and had a mask covering his head and face when disembarking from the plane at Katunayake Airport.

It is widely believed that the arrest was made possible through "inside information" supplied by some members of the LTTE abroad who were opposed to KP donning the tiger leadership mantle after the demise of supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.