Kattankudy mosque massacre

The Kattankudi mosque massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys in a mosque in Kattankudi by LTTE cadres on August 4, 1990. It took place when around 30 Tamil rebels raided four mosques in the town of Kattankudi, where over 300 people were prostate in Isha prayers.

After intermittent conflict throughout the 1980s, peace talks began in 1989 to bring about a negotiated settlement to the conflict. However the talks eventually broke down, and the LTTE broke the 13-month ceasefire on June 11, attacking numerous government targets such as Police stations.They also began attacking Muslim villages, and burning their shops and homes, suspecting them of supporting the government. On July 24, Tamil Tiger cadres murdered four Muslims at a mosque in the Batticaloa District. On July 29, Tiger cadres killed 10 worshipers in Samanthurai, 25 miles east of the town of Batticaloa.

In August 1990, they issued a warning to the citizens of Katthankudi, a majority Muslim town 140 miles east of Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. The warning stated that they should vacate the town "or face death". At the time, of the 60,000 residents of the relatively prosperous Kattankudi, 90 per cent were Muslim.

On August 3, around 30 heavily armed Tamil rebels crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Kattankudi. At around 8.10PM, they entered the Meer Jumma, Husseinia, Majid-Jul-Noor and Fowzie Mosques, where hundreds of devotees were attending Friday Isha prayers. The LTTE cadres were disguised as Muslims to avoid suspicion.

As the civilians knelt in prayer, the Tamil rebels attacked them, spraying automatic fire and hurling hand grenades at the worshipers. Most of the victims were shot in the back or side. The rebels fled as Sri Lankan soldiers, notified of the ongoing massacre, arrived at the scene.

Initial report put the death toll at around 100, but as many of the injured who were rushed to hospital succumbed to their injuries, the final death toll rose to over 147.

Harrowing eye witness accounts appeared in the international press over the next few days. Speaking to the New York Times, Mohammed Ibrahim, a 40-year-old businessman said,

"I was kneeling down and praying when the rebels started shooting. The firing went on for 15 minutes. I escaped without being hit and found myself among bodies all over the place."

Mohammed Arif, a 17-year-old student who also survived the massacre told the New York Times

"Before I escaped from a side door and scaled a wall, I saw a Tiger rebel put a gun into the mouth of a small Muslim boy and pull the trigger."

Then Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa directed Sri Lanka Air Force helicopters to rush the injured to hospitals for urgent treatment. They continued to ferry the injured to hospitals throughout the next morning. Soon after the massacre, government troops launched an operation in the area to capture the killers. One of the helicopters involved in the search shot at two boat loads of LTTE rebels off the sea at Kattankudi. They were believed to be fleeing to India following the massacre. Casualties amongst the rebels were not confirmed.

The incident was the worst massacre of civilians since the resumption the conflict on June 11.[1] All the victims were buried in a cemetery at the Meera Jumma Mosque, where mourners dug a long common grave for a row of coffins.[

Aranthalawa Massacre

The Aranthalawa Massacre was the massacre of 31 Buddhist monks, most of them young novice monks, and four civilians by the Tamil Tigers on June 2, 1987 close to the village of Aranthalawa, in the Amparadistrict of Eastern Sri Lanka. The massacre is considered one of the most notorious and devastating atrocities committed by the LTTE during the history of the Sri Lankan Civil War, and continues to be commemorated 20 years on.

The Aranthalawa Massacre took place on June 2, 1987, when a bus carrying Buddhist monks and a few unarmed civilians was ambushed by 20 armed LTTE cadres near the village of Nuwerathanne. They then ordered the driver of the bus, which was carrying the monks on a pilgrimage from their temple in Mahavapi to the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara, to drive into the nearby Aranthalawa jungle. After the bus stopped, the LTTE cadres went on a rampage, attacking the monks with guns and swords and also shooting some of them with machine guns.

Among the dead were 30 young novice monks and their mentor, the Chief Priest of the Vidyananda Maha Pirivena, Hegoda Sri Indrasara Thera. Four civilians who were traveling in the bus were also among the dead.

Three monks who escaped the massacre sustaining critical injuries continue to require medical assistance. Another monk was permanently disabled.

This and similar attacks against Sinhalese civilians are carried out by the LTTE to antagonize the Sinhalese majority against the Tamil populace of the country, thereby creating rivalry between the two main ethnic groups of Sri Lanka. The LTTE hopes such animosity between the two races would result in attacks by Sinhalese against Tamil civilians, which would increase support and funding towards their violent campaign.

The massacre remains one of the most brutal attacks carried out during the conflict in Sri Lanka and is considered one of the darkest chapters in Sri Lankan history.

Each year Aranthalawa Massacre is commemorated by a series of special programs. In 2007, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the massacre, commemorations were held over the course of four days in Colombo and Ampara, with the main ceremony led by Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa taking place in Colombo with the participation of the Mahanayake Theras of all Chapters. An all night Pirith ceremony was held on the same night, and a Sanghika Dana was offered to 200 Buddhist monks on June 3. An exhibition of over 300 photographs of LTTE attacks on Buddhist sites and other acts of destruction was also organized.

A plaque has since been constructed close to the site of the incident to commemorate the massacre

Anuradhapura massacre

This was the largest massacre of Sinhalese civilians by the LTTE to date; it was also the first major operation carried out by the LTTE outside a Tamil majority area.

The Anuradhapura massacre is an incident on May 14, 1985 in which LTTE cadres massacred 146 Sinhalese men, women and children in Anuradhapura. The LTTE hijacked a bus and entered Anuradhapura. As the LTTE cadres entered the main bus station, they opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons killing and wounding many civilians who were waiting for buses. LTTE cadres then drove to the Buddhist Sri Maha Bobhi shrine and gunned down nuns, monks and civilians as they prayed inside the Buddhist shrine.This incident was designed to provoke massive retaliation by the Sinhalese majority against the Tamils in order to strengthen the LTTE's position among the Tamil people.

Before they withdrew, the LTTE strike force entered the national park of Wilpattu and killed 18 Sinhalese in the forest reserve.

Kent and Dollar Farm massacres

The Kent and Dollar Farm massacres was one of the earliest massacres of Sinhalese civilians carried out by the LTTE during the Sri Lankan Civil War. The massacres took place on November 30, 1984, in two tiny farming villages in the district of Mullaitivu in north-eastern Sri Lanka.

At Dollar farm, 33 Sinhalese were murdered and several others were injured in the shooting carried out by the cadres of LTTE. On the same day at Kent farm, another 29 Sinhalese civilians were massacred, thus increasing the total death toll to 62. Among the civilian casualties were men, women and children. The LTTE operatives used submachine guns, automatic rifles and hand grenades to kill civilians. Survivors also reported that LTTE cadres had killed children by bashing their heads against walls.

Deadliest Massacres by LTTE

2006 Digampathana truck bombing October 16, 2006 (103 Killed)
Kebithigollewa massacre June 15, 2006 (66 Killed)
Gonagala massacre September 18, (54 Killed)
Dehiwala train bombing July 24, 1996 (64 Killed)
Central Bank bombing January 31, 1996 (91 Killed)
1995 Eastern Sri Lanka massacres October 16, 1995 (120 Killed)
Kallarawa massacre May 25, 1995 (42 Killed)
Palliyagodella massacre October 15, 1991 (109 Killed)
Kattankudi mosque massacre August 4, 1990 (147 Killed)
Aranthalawa Massacre July 02, 1987 (35 Killed)
Anuradhapura massacre May 14, 1985 (146 Killed)
Kent and Dollar Farm massacres November 30, 1984 (62 Killed)

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The Background

(The dream that never come true - Tamil EELAM claimed by LTTE)

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, Tamil: தமிழீழ விடுதலைப் புலிகள்), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, is a militant Tamil nationalist organization that has waged a violent secessionist campaign against the Sri Lankan government since the 1970s in order to create a separate, socialist, Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. The LTTE is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization by 31 countries. It is headed by its founder, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The LTTE was founded in 1972 by Velupillai Prabhakaran and attracted many supporters amongst disenchanted Tamil youth, who were dissatisfied with policies followed by successive governments towards solving various concerns of the nation's Tamil community. They carried out low-key attacks against various government targets, including policemen and local politicians. A notable attack carried out during the time was the assassination of the Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiyappah. Initially the LTTE operated in cooperation with other Tamil militant groups which shared their same objectives, and in April 1984, the LTTE formally joined a common militant front, the Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), a union between itself, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).

TELO had always supported India as it was openly funded, trained and supplied by India. TELO usually held the Indian view of problems and pushed for India's view during peace talks with Sri Lanka and other groups. LTTE denounced the TELO view and claimed that India was only acting on its own interest. As a result in 1986, the LTTE broke from the ENLF. Soon fighting broke out between the TELO and the LTTE.Over the next few months clashes took place between the LTTE and TELO. As a result almost the entire TELO leadership and many of the TELO militants were killed in the clashes.

A few months later, the LTTE attacked training camps of the EPRLF, forcing it to withdraw entirely from the Jaffna peninsula.

The LTTE then demanded that all remaining Tamil insurgents join the LTTE. Notices were issued to that effect in Jaffna and in Madras, India which Tamil groups used as their main headquarters. With the major groups including the TELO and EPRLF eliminated, the remaining Tamil insurgent groups, numbering around 20, were then absorbed into the LTTE. This made Jaffna an LTTE dominated city.

LTTE's practice such as wearing a cyanide vial for consumption if captured appealed to the Tamil people as dedication and sacrifice. Other practices by the LTTE also involved taking an oath of loyalty which reiteration of the LTTE’s goal of establishing a state for the Sri Lankan Tamils also gave them the edge on the support by Tamil people.

In 1987 the LTTE established the Black Tigers, a unit of the LTTE responsible for conducting suicide attacks against political, economic and military targets,[10] and launched its first suicide attack against a Sri Lanka Army camp, killing 40 soldiers.
(Courtesy of Wikipedia)