Kilinochchi

The Kilinochchi town was established in 1936 as part of a colonization project that sought to ease overpopulation and unemployment in Jaffna.[2]

Kilinochchi is still part of the Jaffna electoral division and it was separated from the Jaffna District in the 1980s as a new district. Most of the people living in this district are farmers and related to agricultural work. Most of the people migrated from Jaffna in the 1930s to acquire government grants for land in the region and to engage in paddy (rice) cultivation. During the 1970s, a large amount of immigrants from the hill country, predominantly Indian Tamils, settled in the town. Much of the population immigrated overseas (Europe, US, Canada, Australia, etc.) during the Civil War (1990 onward). The population has begun to rise after the end of the war.[3]

LTTE troops in Kilinochchi, 2004

The LTTE first took hold of the town in 1990 when the Army withdrew its garrisons from Kilinochchi. Then the area was retaken by the Army during Operation Sathjaya in September 1996. The town again fell into the LTTE's hand in September 1998 who held their administrative hub there until retreating during the Battle of Kilinochchi on 2 January 2009.[4]

Several institutions of the LTTE were forced to relocate from Kilinochchi to Tharmapuram, a town about 13 km in the east, by early October, 2008 in fear of death by advancing government troops. Security Forces Headquarters – Kilinochchi was established on June 29, 2009, in the town.