Rajiv Gandhi's death anniversary today, was assassinated in LTTE suicide bomb attack 29 years ago

New Delhi: It is the 29th death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi who was assassinated in a suicide bomb attack at Sriperumbudur, Chennai on May 21, 1991. The attack was carried by Thenmozhi Rajaratnam aka Dhanu, a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist organisation of Sri Lanka.

His assassination rocked the Indian political world as the country was in the midst of a Lok Sabha election. The trial in the case was conducted under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA), and in January 1998, the court awarded death sentences to 26 accused in the assassination.

The LTTE leadership, which wanted an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka, masterminded the assassination because India under the prime ministership of Rajiv Gandhi had sent its Army to Sri Lankan government's aid in the civil war.

Rajiv Gandhi and the then Sri Lankan president JR Jayawardene had signed the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987 which "envisaged a devolution of power to the Tamil-majority areas". The LTTE was to be dissolved and Tamil to be made one of the official languages of Sri Lanka according to the accord.

It is suspected that LTTE planned the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to stop him from coming to power again as the terrorist organisation feared that India would once again try to play a role in Sri Lankan civil war.

Rajiv Gandhi was the sixth prime minister of India. He took office in 1984 at the age of 40, to become the youngest prime minister of the country. He is cremated on the banks of the river Yamuna in Delhi, near the cremation spot of his mother, brother and grandfather. The ground is known as Veerbhumi.