After Sri Lanka became independent in 1948 from Britain , the relationship between majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils worsened . Residents of Jaffna city along with the rest of Tamil population of Sri Lanka were in the fore front of the political mobilisation behind Tamil nationalist parties . After the Tamil conference incident in 1974 , the then mayor of Jaffna Alfred Duraiappah was assassinated by the leader of rebel LTTE , Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1975 . Following further deterioration of political discourse , the Jaffna library was burnt down in 1981 by Police and other miscreants . Failure of the political class to find an adequate compromise led to full-scale civil war starting in 1983 soon after the Black July pogrom . Sri Lankan military and police were using the Dutch era fort as their encampment which was surrounded by various Tamil militant groups . Bombardment from air and land of the city led to damage to civic and civilian properties , death and injury to civilians and destruction the economic potential of the city . In 1986 , the Sri Lankan military withdrew from the city and it came under the full control of the LTTE
Tamil conference incident
1974 Tamil conference incident
Jaffna