Students at Jaffna University took a knee to commemorate the death of Lt Col Thileepan this morning, despite intimidation from the Sri Lankan security forces a day earlier.
Dozens of students gathered at a memorial at the Jaffna University campus, where they took to their knees and bowed their heads to pay respect to Thileepan’s sacrifice.
The LTTE political leader fasted to death in 1987, in an eleven-day hunger strike appealing to the Indian government to heed Tamil demands.
The act of commemoration comes just a day after armed Sri Lankan soldiers were deployed to the university on Friday afternoon.
The Sri Lankan security forces suddenly gathered at the campus yesterday and confronted a group of students who were casually gathered by the gates, claiming that they were attempting to commemorate Thileepan.
Elsewhere across the North-East, symbolic hunger strikes have taken place, as the Sri Lankan security forces has continued to intimidate and threaten Tamils who attempt to commemorate their war dead.
Sri Lankan courts had banned Tamils from marking Thileepan’s sacrifice, and even attempted to ban the planned hunger strike, as the state continues to crack down on the Tamil nation.
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