Military parades across Tamil homeland as Sri Lanka marks Independence Day

The Sri Lankan military held parades across the North-East as it marked Independence Day earlier today, in a show of might several years after the end of the armed conflict in the region.

The parades had troops march in formation at streets across various districts, in some cases waving Sri Lankan ‘lion’ flags.

Some of the parades also saw the participation of local Tamil schoolchildren.

See photographs from various districts below.

 

Jaffna

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Batticaloa

Mannar

Trincomalee

Mullaitivu

The military marches come as Tamils across the North-East, and in the diaspora around the world, marked Sri Lanka’s Independence Day as a ‘black day’ for Tamils on the island. Protests took place across several districts, with students at Jaffna University removing the Sri Lankan flag from the campus mast and replacing it with a black cloth, alongside banners calling for the military to leave the North-East.