A re­mark­able young so­cial ac­tivist and par­ent­ing ed­u­ca­tor -Thaarikha Salman hail­ing from Vel­lore re­ports on how 27 No­vem­ber is ob­served as Mar­tyr­dom Day world­wide and es­pe­cially by Naam Tami­lar Kathchi in Tamil Nadu. Brav­ing in­ces­sant rain for three hours, thou­sands of Tamils gath­ered in Madu­rai lis­ten­ing with rapt at­ten­tion to NTK leader See­man ex­tolling the virtues of mar­tyr­dom and the con­tri­bu­tion of Ee­lam Tamils to the cause of Tamil sov­er­eignty.

THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, on No­vem­ber 27, 1982, the Sri Lankan mil­i­tary on­slaught on Tamil na­tion­al­ist fight­ers lead to the mar­tyr­dom of Ee­lam Tamil fight­ers who laid down their lives for the cause of Tamil free­dom. Ob­served as Maav­erar Naal -Great He­roes Day, on this day, Tamil ac­tivists, politi­cians, thinkers and hu­man rights de­fend­ers re­call the sac­ri­fices of the sol­diers and lead­ers of the Tamil Lib­er­a­tion Tigers.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in a well-at­tended func­tion in Madu­rai, Naam Tami­lar Katchi leader See­man bowed his head in rev­er­ence to the mar­tyr­dom of the Ee­lam fight­ers and eu­lo­gised their great con­tri­bu­tion for the cause of lib­er­a­tion of Tamil moth­er­land.

Hail­ing the Tamil Ee­lam foot-sol­diers and lead­ers, See­man said, “His­tor­i­cally, since the dawn of civil­i­sa­tion, the hu­man race has al­ways stood up to per­se­cu­tion and tyranny in all its man­i­fes­ta­tions. The Tamil he­roes flab­ber­gasted the world with their in­nu­mer­able sac­ri­fices.”

“While the Sin­halese geno­cide of Tamils re­sulted in the move­ment for Tamil Ee­lam be­ing crushed, yet the cries for self-de­ter­mi­na­tion for Ee­lam Tamils re­ver­ber­at­ing all across the Tamil world is our chal­lenge to the op­pres­sors. World­wide, we share the pain and agony of our Tamil brethren and we will not rest till the world wakes up to the yearn­ing of Tamil na­tion­al­ists for jus­tice and equal rights,” he added.

In his bold and in­spir­ing speech, See­man ob­served, “Every sin­gle race is strug­gling to live with dig­nity and sov­er­eignty, and free from re­pres­sion.  All Tamils dream to set up their first Tamil moth­er­land. Tamil Ee­lam is the moth­er­land of each and every Tamil­ian liv­ing around the globe as­pires for it. We will con­tinue our cam­paign un­til the world stands up for Tamils and their rights.”

“The role of Prab­hakaran at whose call rose thou­sands of he­roes will serve as a guid­ing light for all times to come. The sac­ri­fices of Tamils who died fight­ing in their zeal to ex­tri­cate them­selves from the tyranny of the Sin­halese gov­ern­ment will stay etched in the hearts of every Tamil.”

 Read also: Tamil na­tion­al­ists de­clare In­dian Cit­i­zen­ship Act anti-Mus­lim, anti-Tamil

 Read also: CAB and NRC are un­con­sti­tu­tional says NTK on World Hu­man Rights Day

 NTK leader See­man greets Tamils on Prab­hakaran's birth an­niver­sary

Though the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity is aware of the das­tardly crimes against hu­man­ity com­mit­ted by Sri Lanka, we still have to wait for strin­gent ac­tion by world bod­ies.  As the Sin­halese peo­ple have voted the butcher of the Ee­lam Tamils as the Pres­i­dent, these are test­ing times again.

Strik­ing a per­sonal note, he said, “the mar­tyr­dom of Tamil Ee­lam fight­ers will al­ways serve as a re­minder of our com­mit­ment in the jour­ney to­wards lib­er­a­tion.”