The Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha marked the 39th anniversary of Black July in which over 3,000 Tamils were slaughtered.
The Chairman Thiyagaraja Nirosh and other members of the council held a minutes silence and lit a flame to remember the victims of the massacre, including Sellarasa “Kuttimani” Yogachandiran, leader of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and Ganeshanathan Jeganathan, a political writer, had their eyes gouged out in mockery before being killed by Sinhalese inmates at the high security Welikada prison in Colombo.
Armed with electoral rolls, Sinhala mobs targeted Tamil homes and businesses, looting and ransacking property. Driven from their homes, particularly in Colombo, over 3000 Tamils were massacred, whilst thousands more were effectively deported by the state to the North-East.
Read more on the massacre here: Remembering Black July - 39 years since the pogrom
