Commemorations marking the 42nd anniversary of Black July were held in Jaffna yesterday, as Tamils across the North-East remembered the victims of the state-sponsored anti-Tamil pogrom that took place in July 1983.

Earlier on Wednesday, students at the University of Jaffna gathered at the campus and laid flowers before a portrait the read the words “Black July Genocide”.  

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has issued a statement commemorating 42 years since Black July, the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom, describing it as “a tragic chapter in Sri Lanka’s history” that left “thousands dead, families shattered, and countless others forced to flee.”