The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) strongly condemns the June 2, 2026, arbitrary arrest and subsequent remand of Tamil artist and rapper Sangeethsan Ganeshkumar, known as hip-hop Sangee, under the Sri Lanka's draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and calls for his immediate and unconditional release, as well as the release of all other Tamil political prisoners and detainees held under the PTA.
NCCT also strongly condemns the continued use of PTA as one of the key instruments used by the Sri Lankan state to carry out the ongoing genocide against the Tamil people and reiterates its longstanding demand for the immediate repeal of the PTA.
For over four decades, the PTA has been used as one of the principal legal instruments through which the Sri Lankan state carried out, and continues to carry out, the ongoing genocide against the Tamil people by criminalizing Tamil identity, suppressing Tamil political expression, silencing Tamil advocacy, intimidating Tamil activists, denying Tamil people the right to remember and honour their loved ones, and preventing Tamil people from seeking truth, accountability, justice, self-determination, and the realization of their collective rights.
Since its enactment in 1979, the PTA has enabled the Sri Lankan state to arbitrarily arrest and detain Tamil people without trial, extract forced confessions, subject detainees to torture, carry out enforced disappearances, and silence Tamil voices. The PTA has created a climate of fear intended to deter Tamil political expression, advocacy, remembrance, and demands for truth, justice, accountability, and self-determination. Through its use, the Sri Lankan state has sought to subjugate the Tamil people and suppress their struggle for their inalienable right to selfdetermination and their collective political aspirations.
The arrest of Tamil artist Sangeethsan Ganeshkumar in connection with his Tamil cultural and musical expression, and the attempt to criminalize such expression through the PTA, demonstrates that even under Sri Lanka's current government, the PTA continues to be used as one of the key instruments through which the Sri Lankan state carries out the ongoing genocide against the Tamil people.
The arrest and remand of Sangeethsan Ganeshkumar is not an isolated incident. Even under Sri Lanka's current government, other recent incidents involving Tamil singers, writers, and cultural figures—including the summoning of Tamil singer Kokulan Santhan over songs relating to Tamil collective memory, the questioning of writer Theepachelvan by the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID), and the withholding of books authored by Theepachelvan by Sri Lankan authorities—demonstrate that Tamil artists, singers, writers, and other cultural figures continue to face questioning, surveillance, censorship, restrictions on their expression, and, in some cases, arrest and detention.
The intimidation of Tamil writers, the censorship of Tamil literature, the suppression of Tamil cultural expression, and the restriction of Tamil remembrance activities form part of a broader pattern through which the Sri Lankan state seeks to suppress Tamil identity, erase Tamil collective memory, silence Tamil cultural and political expression, and destroy the cultural attributes of the Tamil nation. These acts constitute a form of cultural genocide and form part of the broader ongoing genocide against the Tamil people.
For decades, local and international human rights organizations, local and international civil society organizations, independent human rights experts, United Nations human rights mechanisms, and numerous democratic governments have repeatedly raised serious concerns regarding the PTA and called for its review and repeal.
Despite these repeated calls, the Sri Lankan state has refused to change course, and successive Sri Lankan governments have continued to utilize this draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to criminalize Tamil identity, suppress Tamil political expression, silence Tamil advocacy, and advance the ongoing genocide against the Tamil people.
NCCT urges Canada and the international community to take concrete steps—both unilaterally and multilaterally—to secure the immediate and unconditional release of all Tamil political prisoners and detainees held under the PTA, including Tamil artist Sangeethsan Ganeshkumar, and to ensure the immediate repeal of Sri Lanka's draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
Finally, we reiterate that only a permanent political solution grounded in the Tamil people's inalienable right to self-determination can deliver a lasting and just resolution—one that meaningfully addresses the legitimate political aspirations of the Tamil people in their historical, traditional, and ancestral homeland on the island of Sri Lanka, while contributing to lasting and sustainable peace, security, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.