Northern Province (NA): Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2021

Former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader turned politician Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, the leader of the Tamil United Freedom Front (TUFF), speaking at a media briefing held in Kilinochchi on January 3 said that while many LTTE leaders and other members of the LTTE were released under a general amnesty, all other Tamil political prisoners should also be released under a general amnesty, reports Colombo Page. “I am of the view that all Tamil political prisoners must be released. At the end of the war, the then President and current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa took a valuable decision to release all LTTE leaders, in accordance with a general amnesty. A group of members have been released. At present there are very few people to be released and they too should be released. In fact, their lives are very painful. These political prisoners really belong to the category of ordinary people, they were not directly involved in the war. We are concerned about their release. The government should also answer the issue of missing persons. The government should answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the issue of missing persons so that the relatives of the disappeared will have the opportunity to perform the remaining duties,” Muralitharan said. Read less...

A tense situation continued at the Jaffna University on January 9, as dozens of locals, students, and politicians gathered overnight, protesting the removal of a war memorial on campus, reports The Hindu. According to students and eyewitnesses, on January 8 university authorities bulldozed a sculpture erected in memory of several thousand civilians brutally killed in the final phase of the civil war in 2009, in Mullivaikkal in Sri Lanka’s northern Mullaitivu District. Jaffna parliamentarian S. Shritharan described the developments as “very disturbing.” “This is a deliberate, provocative act, knowing well that memorials are to do with people’s emotions. After a relatively peaceful period here, this act will trigger much pain and anger, especially among our youth. That is very worrying,” he said. “I also feel the state has tactfully used the VC to carry out this, pitting some Tamils against others, while achieving what they want,” he added. Read less...