Accountability issues: Some conveniently forgotten facts

I llankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) recently commemorated the death of Sahayaseeli Pedhuruppillai, alias Maalathy, the first woman cadre killed fighting for the macabre Eelam cause.

- BY SHAMINDRA FERDINANDO

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T ürk at Chemmani, Jaffna, where mass graves were unearthed during his visit last June.

Jaffna District parliamentarian and ITAK leader Sivagnanam Shritharan, MP, attended the event, organised by the ITAK Kilinochchi branch. Tamil Guardian (TG) in an online report, headlined 'ITAK commemorates 2nd Lt. Maalathy in Kilinochchi,' posted on 13 October, 2025, recounting how Shritharan spoke about Maalathy's life and the sacrifice she made for the Tamil liberation struggle.

According to that report, there hadn't been any other parliamentarian, past or present, except for Shritharan, at the event. Shritharan received the ITAK leadership in January 2024 after beating parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, PC. Shritharan succeeded the ageing Mavai Senathiraja, who passed away in January 2025.

Having first entered Parliament, in 2010, on the ITAK ticket (ITAK led the Tamil National Alliance), Shritharan was reelected at the 2015, 2020 and 2024 parliamentary elections.

What really interested me, in that TG report, was the reference to the Indian Army deployment in Sri Lanka in the late '80s. TG reported: "Maalathy was killed at the age of 20 during a confrontation with the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Jaffna. She was shot in the legs by the IPKF and swallowed cyanide to avoid being captured."

Maalathy committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of the IPKF on 10 October, 1987, close to Navatkuli-Kopay Road, during a fierce confrontation between the Indians and the LTTE.