As Sri Lanka’s presidential elections draw closer and Tamil parties debate whether a common candidate should be selected, Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) MP Charles Nirmalanathan said that Tamils were “yet to identify a Tamil leader of the likes of Velupillai Prabhakaran,” referring to the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Tamils in Mullaitivu commemorated Annai Poopathy as a memorial float dedicated to her travelled through Mullaitivu today. 

The Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) organised a memorial float to travel through the homeland to mark 36 years since Annai Poopathy’s fast unto death. 

The Sri Lankan military carried out a series of events across the North-East, as the occupation marked both Tamil and Sinhala new year.

In Jaffna, the Consulate General of India in Jaffna, the Additional Secretary of the Presidential Secretariat in Jaffna and government officials took part in a festival organised by the Sri Lankan army.

Image courtesy of Virakesari 

A Buddha statue has been secretly inaugurated at the Veerakathy Pillaiyar temple in Madathady, Trincomalee, after it was installed illegally last month. 

Virakesari reported that on the evening on April 5, a small group of Sinhala Buddhists attended an event to inaugurate the statue which was initially installed in 2019 despite opposition from Tamils. 

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) MP Selvarajah Kajendren has written to Sri Lanka’s prime minister urging him to “prioritise the needs” of the Tamils who have been longing for a separate divisional secretary in Kalmunai North. 

The latest report released by the World Bank has revealed that poverty in Sri Lanka has increased over the past four years from 11 percent in 2019 to 26 percent in 2024 putting more than a quarter of the Sri Lankan population living in poverty. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recognised the "important contributions" made by Tamils in Canada, in his statement marking Tamil New Year. 

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak extended his wishes to the Tamil community celebrating the new year and thanked them for their 'tremendous contribution' to the country. 

Tamil families of the disappeared in Vavuniya marked 2611 days of continuous protests on Tamil New Year as they continue to campaign to know the fate of their forcibly disappeared relatives. 

“We have been fighting for 2611 days to find our missing children,” they said. “We are grateful for the recognition of our struggle from politicians from the USA and EU in their pursuit for accountability and truth.”

Last week, the leader of Sri Lanka’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National People’s Power (NPP) coalition undertook a tour of the Tamil homeland. Though the party trumped up the visit, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s speeches lacked substance. His explicit ruling out of political solutions to the decades-old ethnic conflict will have done little to enthuse Tamils to vote for him. Instead, his remarks have done the opposite, reaffirming to many that there is little to differentiate him from the other Sinhala candidates. Dissanayake’s electioneering has fallen flat.