Prabhakaran's parents in government custody

The parents of the now dead Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran are in the "protective custody" of the Sri Lankan government, a media report said on Thursday.

Thiruvenkatam Velupillai (76) and his wife Parvathi (71) surrendered to the army several days ago, The Island newspaper quoted a government official as saying.

They were reportedly among the civilians holed up in the no fire zone along the coast in Mullaitivu district before the army launched its final assault against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Prabhakaran and other LTTE leaders were killed on May 18.

"Velupillai and Parvathi were among the early batch of Sri Lankan Tamils to go to India. They settled in Tiruchi," the report said.

They returned to the LTTE zone in northern Sri Lanka in 2003, a year after the Tigers and Colombo signed a Norway-brokered ceasefire agreement. Prabhakaran had fled their home in Jaffna way back in 1972.

Prabhakaran's death and the decimation of the LTTE ended a dragging Tamil separatist conflict that left some 90,000 people dead in Sri Lanka.