Sampanthan, a lawyer and one of the MPs with the longest tenure in the nation, passed away late on Sunday in the capital city of Colombo.
He had been the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the principal political organization for Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka, for the previous 23 years.
He has persisted in calling for equal rights for his frequently marginalized ethnic group even after the Tamil Tiger insurgents were routed in 2009.
TNA leader MA Sumanthiran announced his passing on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Sampanthan became the first member of the ethnic minority group to hold the legislative position in thirty-two years when he was named leader of the opposition in 2015.
Sampanthan claimed in a 2022 letter to the UN Human Rights Council that the government led by Sinhalese was still persecuting Tamils, holding political prisoners without charge or trial for an extended period of time, preventing displaced civilians from returning to their land in the former conflict zone, and militarizing the region.
He demanded that the international organization condemn the government for allegedly failing to look into claims of abuses directed towards the minority group.
Tributes to Sampanthan have been pouring in from all points of the political spectrum in Sri Lanka.
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president who presided over the violent.
