Panagoda Maheswaran (born 1955 as Thambapillai Maheswaran) is a Sri Lankan Tamil militant who founded and led the Tamil Eelam Army.
Important achievement of the PLA was the 1984 kidnapping of American couple Stanley and Mary Allen from Columbus, Ohio, in Jaffna.Another minor but notable group was Tamil Eelam Army (TEA) of Panagoda Maheswaran involved in the attack against an Air Lanka flight in Madras, India.