Commemorations were held in Valvettithurai on Wednesday to mark the 71st birthday of Veluppillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), with dozens of locals gathering outside his ancestral home to pay tribute.

More than sixteen years after the genocide at Mullivaikkal, the Tamil homeland is witnessing its most widespread Great Heroes’ Day preparations in years.

Sri Lankan police in Jaffna have seized sound equipment used to play commemoration-related songs at the Mallakam junction on Tuesday evening, as the Sri Lankan state continues its efforts to suppress remembrance activities across the Tamil homeland.

Throughout October 2025, the Sri Lankan military further entrenched its militarization over the Tamil homeland through a dense calendar of activity that reached into classrooms, clinics, religious spaces, and everyday civilian life. From opening bank accounts for pre-schoolers and distributing school supplies to installing reverse osmosis plants in schools and running football camps for hundreds of children, the military worked to normalise its presence among Tamil youth and families, framing occupation as care and charity.

SriLankan Airlines is set to suffer losses exceeding US$230 million after a fleet of Airbus A320neo aircraft acquired with CFM LEAP engines was grounded for years due to design defects, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Anura Karunathilaka has revealed.

Sri Lankan police have arrested a man in Valaichchenai, Batticaloa, for removing an Archaeology Department signboard, even though the removal had been formally approved by the local Pradeshiya Sabha. 

Sri Lanka’s police force has summoned the president and secretary of the Polikandi Fishermen’s Association to the occupying Valvettithurai police station for questioning this morning, as security forces continued to target local preparations for Maaveerar Naal, or Great Heroes’ Day, commemorations.

Sri Lanka has publicly released details of a Defence Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed with the United States, following criticism over the government’s refusal to disclose the agreement at the time of its signing earlier this month.

The Batticaloa Municipal Council paid tribute to fallen Tamil fighters ahead of Great Heroes’ Day, or Maaveerar Naal, as councillors marked the opening of today’s general meeting with a remembrance observance held inside the Municipal Council Hall.