Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (nom de guerre: Colonel Karuna Amman; , Vināyakamūrtti Muraḷitaraņ, born 22 June 1966) is a Sri Lankan politician and former militant. Formerly a fighter for the Tamil separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), for over 20 years, Muralitharan later rose to prominence after defecting from the LTTE and forming the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), a breakaway faction of the LTTE. After giving up arms and entering politics, he was appointed as a National List Member of Parliament in 2008 for the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA), the party of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and was sworn in as Minister of National Integration on 9 March, 2009. He later joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent party of the UPFA, and on 24 April 2009 he was appointed as a Vice President of the SLFP. Militant life Muralitharan was born in Kiran, a village in the Batticaloa district in eastern Sri Lanka to Vinayagamoorthy, an agriculturist from the Vaisyas Caste (Farming and Business Community). He joined the LTTE in 1983 and became a top commander in the Eastern Province. He was formerly a bodyguard to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Breakaway from the LTTE On 26 July 2004, Karuna broke away from the Tamil Tigers after he alleged they were ignoring the interests of the eastern Tamil people, and claimed to have renounced violence. The move by Karuna to break away from the LTTE and renounce armed struggle was considered one of the major turning points of the Sri Lankan Civil War that would eventually bring about the end of the 25 year-long conflict. Muralitharan joined forces with the Sri Lanka Armed Forces to capture LTTE bases. Former Deputy Minister Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana has been hailed as being instrumental in convincing Karuna to renounce militarism, who in turn joined the democratic mainstream. The LTTE claimed that the real reason for Karuna's defection was because the LTTE's intelligence wing was closing in on him for alleged financial and personal misconduct, terming his break a "temporary aberration". The Tigers reacted to his defection by launching attacks against Muralitharan's forces, and heavy clashes ensued. They claimed to have fully evicted his forces from the area he controlled by mid-2004. However Karuna's group, dubbed the Karuna Faction by the media, continued to maintain a stronghold in the southeast of Sri Lanka with a force estimated