Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and TVK chief C Joseph Vijay expressed support for Sri Lankan Tamils, invoking Mullivaikkal in Sri Lanka, where LTTE founder Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed by the Sri Lankan army in May 2009.
In a post on X, Vijay wrote, “We will carry the memories of Mullivaikkal in our hearts! We will always stand in solidarity for the rights of our Tamil kin living across the sea!”
May 18 is observed globally by Sri Lankan Tamils and sections of the Tamil community in India as Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day, also referred to as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day. The day marks the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war and commemorates civilians who were killed, injured, or went missing during the conflict’s final stages in Mullivaikkal.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continues to be banned in India due to its role in the 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, where Prabhakaran was named the main accused.
The Sri Lankan civil war began over demands for a separate Tamil homeland and evolved into a decades-long ethnic conflict that ended in 2009.