ABSTRACT
Tamil-speaking communities were part and parcel of the society outside the North and the East with considerable numbers of them engaged in trade and commercial activities in and around ports. The militant's violence a familiar trajectory: terrorist attacks by guerrilla-style operations. Tamils in Sri Lanka are a minority fighting majority domination which is of relatively recent origin. The Tamil influx into the Eastern Province is of more recent origin, but the heartland of Tamil rebellion, the northern Jaffna Peninsula, has been home to them for centuries. The islet of Mannar off the north-west coast of the island forms part of a chain of reefs, the remnants of a land bridge that connected Sri Lanka with the neighbouring subcontinent millions of years ago. Tamils had begun migrating from the neighbouring South India centuries ago, arriving as traders and adventurers. Tamil domination of the region, however, began with invasions.
