A series of misleading photos published about the “mahaviru day celebration” in the University of Jaffna!

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These days there has been a lot of discussions about the ‘mahaviru day celebrations’ (Maaveerar Nal), which is celebrated by the people of the Northern province in the end of November every year. As some misleading posts were circulating, we decided to do a fact check on that.

Social media posts:

Many posts were shared in social media including a photograph of a young woman carrying the flag of the LTTE organization, convincing people that the incident is related to the celebration “mahaviru day” in Sri Lanka. They were published under the caption, ‘The party is over. This is Sri Lanka’ (සාදය හමාරයි. මේ ලංකාවේ බං).

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Also, similar posts were shared with the above shown photo along with the plaque of ‘mahaviru celebration’ of Jaffna University.

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Here’s how it was reported in a website that the photo is from the Jaffna University.

Archived.

Fact Check

Is the young woman wearing the flag of the LTTE terrorist organization if from Jaffna University?

According to the investigations we carried out, it became clear that this young woman is named as Ammu RanjithKumar. On checking her social media account, it became clear that she is loyal to the Tamil Eelam.

According to her Facebook account she currently lives in Paris, and it is clear through her photos and videos posted in the account as well.

On her Facebook account, she has posted the photo of her wearing the LTTE flag. Shown below is the photo she has posted in her feed and has now she has made it private. Accordingly, it is confirmed that this is a photo posted on May 19^th this year i.e., before the November ‘Mahaviru Day’ celebration.

And on her Tiktok account, which has been set to Private, she has posted the video of her carrying the flag of the LTTE organization on May 20^th.

Mullivaikkal Day is commemorated every year in May by the relatives of North Eastern Tamils who lost their lives in the last phase of the three-decade long conflict, in May 2009 operations. At the same time, the Tamil diaspora living in foreign countries also commemorate this day and the banned terrorist organization, LTTE, while pointing out the genocide and the displaced persons during the war conflicts.

Such a celebration was held in France on May 18^th, and it can be seen from a video posted on her TikTok account that the girl in the post was a participant at that celebration. You can watch the video here.

Also, the young women who can be seen in her video wearing  blue dresses, can be seen in the photo posted in social media stating it is from a celebration of Jaffna university. Through that it is clear that the photo in question is related to the celebration held in France.

Here is the comparison between the questioned photo and the actual footages of the celebration.

This celebration was held on May 18^th in Île-de-France, Paris, and it is confirmed that it is same place shown in the questioned photo, through the test done through Google maps.

Here and here are some of the instances of the celebration held at Île-de-France, Paris.

Also, it can be seen that the backgrounds of the questioned photo and the photos taken by someone else who participated in the celebration are the same. Regarding the Tamil celebration held in France, a Tamil news was also published with photographs and there the background of the questioned photograph can be seen. You can watch the news here and the video from here.

Accordingly, it is clear that this young woman is not a student in Jaffna university and these photos are from a celebration held in France.

Mahaviru celebrations in Jaffna

The people of Jaffna are holding memorial celebrations throughout this week in memory of their relatives who died in the war, as well as the Tamil combatants who lost their lives during the war.

Accordingly, we checked whether the main stream media has reported that a mahaviru celebration held in Jaffna university or an incident related to the questioned photo. But we didn’t find any such news.

But the Tamil Guardian website stated that ‘students of Jaffna University mark the third day of Mahaviru week’ and reported with photographs how the students are doing the commemorative activities in front of the Mahaviru memorial plaque of the university.

However, the it seems that LTTE logos or flags were not used at the celebration.

During our inspections, we could see that, photos of the first day and second day of the Mahaviru celebration held in the university were posted on the Facebook page of the Jaffna University Students’ Union. But it seems that they haven’t used any of the logos or flags related to the LTTE organization.

They also mentioned in the photo posting that a commemoration of the war heroes who died for the Tamil people was held under the leadership of the Jaffna University Students’ Union.

Administration of Jaffna University.

We also inquired about this from the Jaffna University staff and they said that for several days, students placed flowers and lit lamps in front of the Mahaviru Memorial in the university. The university confirmed that any kind of flags or logos related to the LTTE were not used.

Students of Jaffna University

When we inquired some of the students of the university, they told us that they held the celebration of war heroes as usual and that they did not use any of the flags and the logos of the banned organization, LTTE. They also confirmed that the young woman in the questioned photo is not from the Jaffna university.

Journalists of Jaffna University

They also confirmed that it was not reported that the students of the Jaffna university used any of the logos and the flags of the LTTE.

Conclusion

Accordingly, it is clear that the photo used to convince people that the Jaffna University has celebrated the Mahaviru day along with the flags and the logos of the LTTE organization is actually related to a celebration held in France on 18^th of May.

It is clear that the students of the Jaffna University have not used the flags and the logos of the banned organization, LTTE.

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