Sri Lankan military and police have threatened a temple in Jaffna against marking the Tamil Hindu festival of lights, Karthikai Vilakkeedu today, due to the festival’s proximity in date to Maaveerar Naal, and the festival tradition of lighting lamps and tolling bells resemblance of Maaveerar Naal practices.

The Tamil vote in the North-East has fractured after the ‘slump’ of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), said The Economist this week, however noted that there were areas of unity and said Tamil parliamentarians will have more areas of co-operation to come as the Sri Lankan govenrment embraces Sinhala chauvinist policies.

“Tamil hopes for an independent homeland were dashed in 2009, when the government defeated the Tamil Tigers, a ruthless separatist insurgency,” it said. “But many in the north still hanker for autonomy, as promised by amendments to the constitution adopted in 1987 but never fully implemented.”

A Tamil journalist has been arrested by the Sri Lankan Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) this morning, over allegations that he had he published pictures of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on Facebook.

The journalist, identified locally as Gokulan, was arrested on Sunday morning at his home in Batticaloa. Gokulan is a photographer who is attached to the Batticaloa Press Club.

Across the United States of America, several Maveerar Naal commemoration events were held on November 27^th.

See photographs form the various events below.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered the commencement of ‘Pirith’ chanting and the distribution of over 700 Buddha statues among temples across the island last week, in an apparent bid to eradicate the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) published a list of complaints and information regarding missing and disappeared persons to its Head and Regional Offices last week.

In a statement, the OMP said that the list contains information relating to "persons who went missing or were disppeared in connection with the conflict, political unrest or civil disturbances or as an enforced disappearance; and personnel of the armed forces or police who have been identified as missing in action."

CCTV footage from outside a home in Chavakachcheri in Jaffna, showed armed Sri Lankan police and army personnel surrounded it, as part of a crackdown across the North-East on Maaveerar Naal.

The residents inside the home were holding a small private ceremony to mark the day, which pays tribute to fallen Tamil freedom fighters.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, M A Sumanthiran highlighted the discrimination faced by Tamils in their right to remember those who gave their lives in the struggle for liberation, in a fiery exchange in the Sri Lankan parliament.

Tamils in cities and homes across Germany marked Maaveerar Naal on November 27, 2020.

See photographs from events below.