Colombo, Aug 7: 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.

"Most wanted LTTE terrorist for Interpol and local security divisions Kumaran Padmanadan alias KP has been taken into custody by Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities," it was reported on the defence ministry website. "The suspect is known to be responsible for cross-border terrorist activities of Liberation Tiger of the Tamil Elam (LTTE)," it added.

Sri Lanka's Defence Minister Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that Pathmanathan was detained in Thailand, where he had been residing for many years. There has been no comment yet from the rebels on Pathmanathan's arrest. 

Rajapaksa did not elaborate on the circumstances surrounding the capture. Pathmanathan was widely believed to be running the LTTE's arms and smuggling networks for years. 

As the new rebel leader, Pathmanathan said the LTTE had decided to silence their guns and would try non-violent methods to achieve their goal of a separate state for the Tamil minority, BBC reported.