MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Monday alleged that by naming a renovated stadium in Sri Lanka after Alfred Duraiappah, former mayor of Jaffna, the governments in India and Sri Lanka had sought to deceive the world that normalcy had returned to the country.

In a statement, he said when there was no trace of thousands of Tamils who had disappeared during the war and when thousands of them continued to live in camps, PM Narendra Modi had inaugurated the stadium through video conferencing.

“This is nothing but an attempt to permanently bury fathom deep over 1.87 lakh Tamils killed by the Sri Lankan Army.” He claimed Duraiyappah was a traitor and responsible for the death of Tamils in police firing and electrocution at the venue of World Tamil Conference in 1974.

Duraiappah was assassinated in 1975. It is widely believed that Valupillai Prabhakaran, who became the leader of the LTTE, carried out the assassination.

(With inputs from The Hindu)