Retired Indian Army Lieutenant General Ata Hasnain has warned that Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict remains unresolved, cautioning that “a Prabhakaran will again be born” within the next two to three decades if Sinhala majoritarianism continues to dominate the island.
In an interview with NDTV broadcast in February 2025, the former Indian military commander reflected on his experiences during the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) military intervention and on the island’s political trajectory since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Mullivaikkal genocide of 2009.
"I think the most difficult part of my entire military career was the time I spent in Sri Lanka," said Lt Gen Hasnain. "My unit was deployed in one of the most difficult areas, in the area of Vavuniya, a place called Mullaithivu… That was the lair, the fortress, of the LTTE, where my battalion was deployed. Everywhere, we had solid contact with them."
"I learned my profession actually all over again,” he said. “At the ground level, the sub-tactical level, the issues today I can reflect upon today is because of the contacts, the firing which I had on my head, which was going all the time in that period in Sri Lanka."
Turning to the island’s present political situation, Lt Gen Hasnain said, "I felt that the conflict has not terminated in Sri Lanka. The Tamil antipathy against the majority continues."
"I did write at one end as a conclusion to an article that sometime in the next 20–25 years, a Prabhakaran will again be born."
Pressed on this point, the general elaborated:
"You have to remember when you have got a minority population with you, you either do ethnic cleansing and throw them into the Indian Ocean, or you take them along. To take them along is not a very easy thing. You have to compromise with the majority also to some extent. What the Sinhala majority has not done is that they have not been willing to compromise on anything with the Tamil minority."
"The kind of provocative statements in the media, etc., led me to believe that this situation is not over."
Despite having fought against the LTTE during India’s military intervention, Lt Gen Hasnain acknowledged that Tamil grievances persist. "Militarily, you can destroy the LTTE, and their bases, etc. The LTTE has been my enemy also — but today, I am talking in their favour and saying this.”