Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who was appointed the leader of the Tamil Tigers following the killing of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been arrested, the Sri Lankan defence ministry confirmed Friday.

Pathmanathan took over as the LTTE's leader after Prabhakaran was killed May 18 in the island's north. Prabhakaran's killing had brought the curtains down on one of the world's bloodiest ethnic conflicts that ravaged this nation.