Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

TNA honour Thileepan in Kilinochchi

Marking the 29th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col. Thileepan who fasted to death on hunger strike, the Tamil National Alliance held a memorial event in Kilinochchi on Sunday. 

The TNA MP S Sritharan took part in the event along side the TNA youth wing leader. 

Thileepan, a former medical student, was the political wing leader of the Jaffna district for the LTTE. On the 15th of September 1987, Thileepan took to a podium around the historic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Over 100,000 people had gathered to hear Thileepan outline 5 demands to the Indian government:

- the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), 
- a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands, 
- an end to the building of new Sri Lankan military camps in the Tamil areas, 
- the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan security forces from Tamil schools, and 
- the disarming of Sinhala and Muslim paramilitary militia.

He died after 11 days of fasting on September 26th. 

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.