A SriLankan Airlines flight from Chennai to Colombo was searched on 3 May, after authorities at Chennai Airport received an email claiming that five suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives were on board.

The threat, received at 11:05 a.m. by Chennai’s Chief Security Officer, stated that “five South Indian males on UL122 (9:55 a.m.) are Lashkar operatives. Clean profile, well-trained, no suspicion.” However, the flight had already departed by the time the message was received.

As part of its campaign efforts ahead of local government polls this week, Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP) party released a series of Tamil songs, full of nationalist and pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) sentiment.

Two Tamil men accused of aiding a 2008 a bombing attempt on former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena—then the country’s Agriculture Minister—have spent nearly 16 years in remand custody, with their case finally heard last week.

On this day 49 years ago, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was founded.

Then 21-year-old Velupillai Prabhakaran rebranded his militant organisation the Tamil New Tigers, into the LTTE. 

The organisation, was one of many militant groups formed at the time, but grew to become the largest and spearheaded the Tamil struggle for an independent state.

Today, we share a selection of original photographs from Kilinochchi of the LTTE throughout the years.