An unprecedented number of events took place across the North-East last week. Hunger strikes were staged. Flames were lit and garlands laid. The elderly and children gathered together. A kavadi even procession took place, with hooks piercing the flesh of a devotee in a symbolic act of devotion. All to remember the LTTE’s Lt. Col. Thileepan – a young man who undertook a hunger strike until death thirty-eight years ago, demanding justice for his people.

Sri Lankan police launched a violent assault on peaceful protesters in Mannar on Friday night, leaving priests, women and men hospitalised, in a fresh escalation of tensions over the controversial wind power project.

Events took place across the North-East today to mark 38 years since the death of LTTE political leader Thileepan, who undertook a hunger strike until death 38 years ago.

National People’s Power (NPP) parliamentarian Rajeewan Jayachandramurthy paid tribute at the newly opened Thiyaga Theepam Thileepan archive in Nallur, Jaffna, on Saturday evening.

Rajeewan visited the site, located near the Thiyaga Theepam memorial in Nallur, where he honoured a statue of Thileepan and toured the archive, which contains materials commemorating the LTTE political leader.

Today marks 38 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death, in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people.

Thileepan began his fast on the September 15, 1987, with 100,000 people gathered around the historic Nallur Kandwaswamy Temple in Jaffna.

On September 13, 1987, Thileepan put forward five demands  to the Indian government following the signing of the Indo-Lanka accord in July 1987: 

Lt. Col. Thileepan, who fasted unto death 38 years ago, has been remembered in Nallur, Jaffna over the last 11 days.

Tamils have gathered daily at his memorial in Nallur since September 15th to commemorate Thileepan who launched a hunger strike in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour the pledges made to the Tamil people. His hunger strike followed the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord in July 1987. 

Day 11 

Sri Lankan police say they have made the largest drug seizure in the island’s history, after 705 kilograms of heroin and crystal methamphetamine were uncovered during a raid in Tangalle this week.

The United States has expanded its military partnership with Sri Lanka by funding a new English Language Lab at the Sri Lanka Navy’s academy in Trincomalee, a Tamil district that remains heavily militarised more than sixteen years after the end of the armed conflict.

HSBC has announced it will sell its entire Sri Lankan retail banking business to Nations Trust Bank, as part of a global strategy to scale back less-profitable operations.

Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) told Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama today that 6,000 gold items recovered from the North-East during and after the armed conflict have now been handed over to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.