Colombo, Feb 13: Sri Lanka on Monday dismissed as a "joke" a top Tamil nationalist leader's claim that LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in 2009 by the island nation's military, was still alive.

Pazha Nedumaran, a noted nationalist leader in Tamil Nadu, told reporters in Thanjavur that the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) "is doing well" and a "conducive atmosphere prevails for him to appear now."

Sri Lanka's defence ministry dismissed Nedumaran's claim as a joke.

"It is confirmed that he was killed on 19 May 2009. The DNA has proved it," Colonel Nalin Herath, Sri Lanka's defence ministry spokesman told PTI.

In a bitterly fought campaign that began in 1983, Sri Lanka's military ended the nearly three-decade brutal civil war in the island nation in May 2009, by killing the leaders of the LTTE.

The LTTE was fighting for an independent state for the Tamilians in Sri Lanka's North and Eastern provinces.

Though the exact date when Prabhakaran was killed by the Sri Lankan Army was not known, his death was announced on May 19, 2009.

The then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 18, 2009 declared the end of a 26-year war in which over 1,00,000 people were killed and millions of Sri Lankans, mainly minority Tamils were displaced as refugees inside the country and abroad.

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Mandya (Karnataka) (PTI): A bomb threat email sent to the judge of the Mandya district court here triggered panic on Thursday, prompting police to launch a search operation.

According to police, the district court received a bomb threat through an email earlier in the day, following which authorities immediately evacuated the premises.

Court proceedings were halted, and lawyers, judges, staff and litigants were asked to immediately vacate the premises.

Police teams, along with the bomb disposal squad and fire brigade personnel, rushed to the spot and launched a thorough inspection of the court premises.

Senior police officials, including Additional Superintendent of Police Gangadhar Swamy, were present at the scene and supervised the search operation.

Police later said the threat appeared to be a hoax.

Lawyers said a similar email threat was received on February 16 as well, and expressed concern over the recurrence of such incidents.

Police said an investigation has been launched to nab those behind such acts.