Eelam Tamils gathered on Monday to mark the 30th anniversary of the massacre of 21 schoolchildren at Nagarkovil Maha Vidyalayam, who were killed when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed their classrooms in 1995.
On 22 September 1995, Sri Lankan military aircraft dropped bombs on the school in Vadamaradchi, killing 21 Tamil students and injuring more than a hundred others. The children had been engaged in their studies when the raid struck the school grounds.
At the site of the atrocity, lamps of remembrance were lit, floral garlands laid, and tributes paid before the memorial monument erected at the school. Parents, relatives and classmates of the victims joined current students and community members in honouring their memory.
The Nagarkovil massacre remains one of the most infamous atrocities of the war, symbolising the indiscriminate targeting of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan military. Despite international condemnation at the time, no one has ever been held accountable for the bombing.
