The mother of a fallen LTTE fighter and former Northern Provincial Council member MK Shivajilingam were amongst those who paid tribute to Lt. Shankar this morning, the first Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre, to die in combat on November 27, 1982. 

With the lifting of pandemic restrictions in some parts of the world, today many Eelam Tamils will once again gather in their masses to commemorate Maaveerar Naal, the day of remembrance dedicated to the tens of thousands who laid down their lives in the Tamil liberation struggle. Meanwhile, a familiar cloud hangs over the Tamil homeland, as the Sri Lankan state continues its efforts to stamp out the lingering memory of those sacrifices from the very land on which they fell. But despite using every weapon in its arsenal to clamp down on commemorations - from court orders to vandalising monuments, to roadblocks and supposed COVID-19 regulations - the Sri Lankan state has and will continue to fail in its mission to eradicate the Tamil nation’s spirit of resistance.

Tamils in New Zealand gathered today to commemorate Maaveerar Naal, as Tamils across the world remember those who lost their lives in the Tamil struggle for liberation. 

Flowers were scattered at Nandikadal lagoon at sunrise today by Former Northern Provincial Councillor T. Ravikaran amidst Sri Lankan military presence. 

Four Sri Lankan military personnel viciously attacked Mullaitivu journalist Vishvalingham Vishvachandran for taking a photo of a Mullivaikkal road sign.

On Thursday, the Canadian Tamil Youth Organisation paid tribute to those who gave their lives to the Tamil liberation struggle in an event marking the “commencement of Tamileelam Remembrance Week.” 

UK Tamil students and the Tamil Youth Organisation UK (TYO UK) held a Youth Maaveerar Event to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil struggle for freedom.

In the lead up to Maaveerar Naal, Tamil university students across the Denmark held events to commemorate those who sacrificed their lives in the Tamil struggle for freedom.

Sri Lankan soldiers disrupted services at the St Joseph Church in Koolamurippu this evening, blocking entry to the shrine and telling worshippers and the priests to move the service to another day because it could not be held today.

Sri Lankan police and Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers have shut down University of Jaffna campus after students cut a cake to celebrate the 67th birthday of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran earlier today, in a secret ceremony held on the campus grounds.

“By the afternoon, everyone was chased out,” university sources told the Tamil Guardian. “The police told the [university] security not to allow anyone inside [and] CID and police are outside the university […] it’s a risky situation right now”

The Mullaitivu magistrate’s court revoked its ban on Maaveerar Naal and injunctions placed on dozens of Tamil politicians and civil society members, stating that the need to remember the dead was a fact of human nature.

On Thursday, the Magistrate T. Saravanabavan amended the court’s earlier judgement which had granted Mullaitivu police’s applications for bans on commemorations, and 72 individual injunctions against politicians, activists and community leaders.

Students at the University of Jaffna cut a cake to celebrate the 67th birthday of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran earlier today, in a secret ceremony held on the campus grounds.

Following high-profile meetings with the US State Department in Washington and New York, as well as meeting the British High Commissioner for Sri Lanka in Colombo, Tamil National Alliance spokesperson MA Sumanthiran met with Minister for South Asia, Tariq Ahmad.

British MPs Elliot Colburn and Theresa Villiers have called on the British foreign secretary to impose Magnitsky style sanctions on Sri Lanka's army commander, Shavendra Silva, who has been credibly accused of war crimes.