At least 40 people, including nine children, were killed and more than 120 injured after a crowd crush at a rally led by Tamil film star and politician Vijay in Karur, Tamil Nadu on Saturday night.

The Mannar district came to a standstill on Monday as thousands of people took part in a general strike against the controversial wind farm project and to condemn the brutal Sri Lankan police assault on Tamils last week.

The Valikamam East Divisional Council has passed a resolution to erect a statue in honour of LTTE political leader Thileepan and to restore the name of a local road to “Thileepan Road”.

The tech giant Microsoft announced last week that it had cut off a set of cloud and AI services to a division of Israel's Ministry of Defence, after discovering their tools had been used to spy on the Palestinians. The decision was made official by Brad Smith, the company’s president and vice chair, after weeks of scrutiny following reports that the Israeli military was heavily reliant on Microsoft's Azure technology to monitor and store millions of Palestinian communications. 

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.