The murder of former rebel military commander Mahattya after a year in captivity opened a new chapter in the chequered history of the LTTE. "Mahattya is no more. He was executed for plotting to kill Prabhakaran," said the LTTEs chief ideologue Anton Balasingham. The killing ended the domination of the pre-1983 anti-Tamil riots generation of LTTE leaders. Apart from Prabhakaran, Baby Subramaniam is the only first generation leader still alive and associated with the movement. The second-rank leadership comprising Sadasivam Krishna Kumer (Kittu), Gopalsamy Mahendrarajah (Mahattya), Charles Antony and Uma Maheswaran (who later broke away from the LTTE to form PLOTE), are all dead. Theoreticians like Ragavan, Nirmala Nithyanandam, Rahim and Raghu have left the organisation and are in the West. The politics of the new generation of young leaders is distinctly different from the earlier one.