Commemoration events were held across Europe this month to mark Tamil Women’s Day and 38 years since the death of Second Lieutenant Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle.

Today marks 38 years since the death of 2nd Lt. Maalathy, the first female fighter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to lose her life in the Tamil armed struggle.

Across the world, the day is being commemorated as Tamil Women’s Day, an opportunity to honour women’s involvement in the fight for Tamil rights.

The final day of a relay hunger strike organised by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared in the North and East was held in Jaffna today, with campaigners demanding international justice for enforced disappearances and mass atrocities committed against Tamils.

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: