Maveeran Sivakumaran
Maveeran Sivakumaran
Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, one of the early leaders of the Tamil Students’ Union, joined with few youths in Urumparai and took up radical measures against the Sinhala government and Tamil traitors.
In 1971, he attempted to assassinate Yarlpanam Mayor Alfred Thuraiappa, who was the chief broker of the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government in the north, to suppress the Tamil people’s voice of rights. He did not miss his target. He planted a time bomb in Thuraiappa’s car on the main road of Yarlpanam. Thuraiappa escaped unhurt because he was not in the car when the powerful bomb exploded. The car was shattered into pieces. Similarly, he planted a bomb in the car of Somaweera Chandra Siri, who served as a deputy minister in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike cabinet. Sivakumaran was arrested by the police for these two activities and was imprisoned for 3 years. He was tortured by the police to tell how he got the bombs and tools used during his activities. He did not betray any of his helpers. The charges against him by the ruler could not be proven in court, so Sivakumaran was released.
After being released, Sivakumaran again dedicated himself fully to the liberation struggle. He was directly involved in campaigns to eliminate the disease of untouchability that was affecting the Tamil nation and in activities such as Samabandhi Bosanam. In his hometown, Urumparai, Nagalingam Nadarasa, a petrol station owner who was a casteist, was a Sirimavo party member. He informed the police about Sivakumaran and his comrades working against the government.
This came to Sivakumaran’s attention. Sivakumaran decides that the traitor must be eliminated if the struggle is to proceed without any disruptions and sets his sights on him. The traitor Nadarasa escapes from the two attempts made by Sivakumaran and his companions to eliminate the traitor.
At the same time (in January 1974), the Fourth World Tamil Studies Conference was held in Yarlpanam. On the last day of the conference, nine Tamils who had come to see the conference were killed in police firing. Seeing this, Sivakumaran vowed to take revenge on the Sinhala police officer Chandrasekara, who was responsible for the brutal murder, and made two attempts. Due to the shortcomings of the comrades who accompanied Sivakumaran, Chandrasekara escaped despite the two attempts. In this situation, on June 5, 1974, while surrounded by the police at Koppai, Sivakumaran fought until the last bullet of the gun in his hand was used up and when the police were about to arrest him, he died a heroic death by consuming the ‘cyanide’ he had prepared.
Sivakumaran did not act in an organized manner and acted with the help of his comrades. Sivakumaran was the first to die in an armed struggle against the Sinhalese ruler. He may not have been able to achieve what he set out to achieve in his lifetime. But he spent 3 years in prison by the age of 24 and fought for his ideals to the end. The hero Sivakumaran was the first to sacrifice his life in an armed struggle for the Eelam Tamils, creating an upsurge and inspiration among the Eelam Tamil youth. His struggle experiences served as lessons for later youth and movements. People gathered in large numbers to pay their last respects to the brave young man.
Note:
On 2.7.76, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam bombed Nagalingam Nadaraasa, a petrol station manager from Urumparai, who was continuously betraying Tamil youths who were engaged in the liberation war to the police. They became obsessed with caste and betrayed him to the Sinhala government as a violent person.
– From: A heroic history of the Liberation Tigers.
– By: Tamilarasan Abdulkadhar
(Translation by Tamilpriya)
0 Comments