Thileepan remembered in Jaffna

The commemoration of the death of Lt. Col. Thileepan, a senior leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who fasted unto death in a campaign during September 15-26, 1987, was observed today  at the Thileepan memorial located in Nallur behind historic Kandasamy Temple.

Thileepan, a former medical student, was the political wing leader of the Jaffna district for the LTTE.

On the 15th of September 1987, Thileepan took to a podium around the historic Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna. Over 100,000 people had gathered to hear Thileepan outline 5 demands to the Indian government:

– the release of all Tamils held under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA),

– a halt to the state-sponsored Sinhala colonisation of Tamil lands,

– an end to the building of new Sri Lankan military camps in the Tamil areas,

– the withdrawal of the Sri Lankan security forces from Tamil schools, and

– the disarming of Sinhala and Muslim paramilitary militia.