On this day 49 years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was founded.

Then 21-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran rebranded his militant organisation the Tamil New Tigers, into the LTTE. 

The organisation, was one of many militant groups formed at the time, but grew to become the largest and spearheaded the Tamil struggle for an independent state.

Today, we share a selection of original photographs from Kilinochchi of the LTTE throughout the years. 

Today marks the 20th anniversary since the abduction and murder of Tamil journalist Dharmeratnam Sivaram.

Sivaram, popularly known under his nom-de-plume Taraki, was abducted in front of Bambalipitiya police station in Colombo on April 28 and was found dead several hours later in a high security zone in Sri Lanka's capital, which at the time had a heavy police and military presence due to the ongoing conflict. His killers, highly suspected to be linked to the government of then-president Chandrika Kumaratunga, were never caught.

Tamils across the North-East commemorated Annai Poopathy on Saturday, marking 37 years since her hunger strike unto death, in protest of atrocities committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF).

Sri Lanka’s newly released preliminary census figures from 2024 illustrated how the Tamil North-East, particularly the Vanni region, remains the worst-affected part of the island in terms of population loss and stagnation.

During Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Colombo in April 2025, India and Sri Lanka signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Defence Cooperation—an agreement that both governments say is rooted in shared security interests and mutual trust.

What the agreement includes