Sri Lanka's intelligence officers are surveilling Tamil organisers at the Kanchikudiyaru thuyilum illam, in an attempt to intimidate Tamils remembering fallen cadres. 

Traders in Thenmarachchi, Jaffna, have closed their businesses today to mark Maaveerar Naal, joining the wider Tamil homeland in remembrance.

All trading establishments in Chavakachcheri, Kaithady and Kodikamam are closed today to observe Maaveerar Naal - or Great Heroes' Day - where the Tamil nation remembers the Tamil fighters who gave their lives for the liberation struggle. 

For years in the Tamil homeland, Maaveerar Naal commemorations were forced underground. Lamps were lit behind closed doors, portraits of the fallen hidden from the state and gatherings broken apart by armed soldiers. Not today.

The 71st birthday of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabhakaran was marked by local residents in Nallur, Jaffna, today. 

Pongal, sweets, cakes and coconut saplings were distributed outside a memorial shrine in Nallur that is dedicated to fallen LTTE cadres. 

Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge delivered a statement in the Australian Senate on 25 November marking Maaveerar Naal - or Great Heroes' Day - describing it as “one of the most significant events in the Tamil calendar” and honouring those who gave their lives in the struggle for dignity, justice and human rights.

Tributes were paid at the Maaveerar Memorial in Nelliyadi, where Miller’s mother lit the flame of sacrifice and floral honours were offered

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.