New Delhi: It is Heroes Day for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The rebel group remembers their dead on this day.
Nearly 20,000 of their cadres were killed in the battle for a separate state for the ethnic minority Tamils in the island nation as hence the rebels also mark this week as their 'Heroes' Week.'
The LTTE said it lost 19,877 cadres in the last 25 years of fighting for an independent state for the ethnic Tamils in the majority Sinhalese Sri Lanka.
LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is 53-years-old today. In the past his speech would have been written by his political adviser Anton Balasingham but Balasingham is no more and his successor Tamilselvan was killed in a Sri Lankan air strike recently.
"The Tamil Tigers in a latest release by its Heroes Department claimed that they have lost 19,877 cadres in their quest for a separate state for the Tamils in the island nation of Sri Lanka," the pro-LTTE website Tamil Eelam News.Com said in a report from the rebel dominated Killinochchi region in the northern part of the country.
The commemoration ends on Tuesday with an annual policy statement by Prabhakaran. The 19,877 cadres killed includes 15,691 males and 4,196 females, between November 27, 1982 to 20 November 2007, the 'Heros Department' said. "The Tamil Tigers lost their first cadre Lt Shankar on November 27, which is widely celebrated as Heroes' Day, the website said.
There were 343 Black Tigers killed, including 250 male 93 women. Of them 102 LTTE cadres died in land operations and 241 in sea operations, the website said quoting a release by the rebels.
It included the 21 commandos who died during the airbase attack at Anuradhapura on October 22. "Another 478 civil society members who were killed by the government forces or the para military forces for their commitment for the Tamil cause are also listed as Heroes," the release said.
(With agency inputs)
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