Lt Col Pulenthiran and Lt Col Kumarappa commemorated in Tamil homeland

A remembrance ceremony was held in Jaffna yesterday to commemorate 35 years since 12 LTTE cadres committed suicide, after being arrested by the Indian Peace Keeping Force and were in the process of being taken to Colombo for interrogation.

Alongside Lt Col Pulenthiran and Lt Col Kumarappa, the ten other cadres were Major Abudullah, Captains Karan, Ragu, Palani and Miresh, Lts Thavakumar, Anbalagan, Second Lt. Anandakumar, Lt.Reginald and Captain Nalan.  The incident occurred within two months of the IPKF arriving on the island.

All 12 cadres swallowed cyanide and died on 5 October 1987, after finding out that the Sri Lankan army and IPKF were planning to take them to Colombo. They died at the Sri Lankan Army’s Palaly base in Jaffna.

(Photo of a memorial held in October 2018)

In 2018 the Urban Council of Valvettithurai cleared and attempted to rebuild the Theeruvil memorial monument for the fallen cadres which was destroyed by the Sri Lankan military after a court ruled in its favour. Despite the court ruling in favour of the Tamil residents, the project has been subject to heavy police intimidation and surveillance.

In November 2019 police were identified filming members of the public which led to criticisms of the officer in charge (OIC) maintaining surveillance of the public. In the face of this heavy intimidation, the council was still able to clear the ground for the monument.

Here are photos of the previous memorial monuments in Theeruvil, Valvettithurai.

^{Photographed in the early 90's}

^{Photographed in the early 90's}

^{The partly destroyed memorial in 2010.}

^{The partly destroyed memorial in 2010.}

The monument, pictured in 2017.