Kilinochchi Railway Station massacre ­ 25.01.1986

Kilinochchi town is a hustling business centre for the Kilinochchi district. It has a big market, a railway station and a hospital that draws the people to the town from all around the district. Farmers, business people, government employees and self employed people contribute to its economic activity.

The Sri Lankan military was stationed in the Kilinochchi Irrigation Department hostel in 1986. The military was harassing people through arrests and threats. On 25.01.1986, five Sri Lankan military personnel were hiding behind the trees south of the Kilinochchi Railway station. The train from Jaffna carrying passengers to Colombo stopped at the Kilinochchi railway station to pick up passengers.

As the passengers were boarding the train, one of the military soldiers opened fire at the passengers. Frightened people started to run in all directions. People hid inside the railway station and inside the train.

At the end of the shooting, 12 people were dead including four women and two children.

The government of Sri Lanka made the following statement after this massacre, “A soldier suffering from mental illness opened fire at the passengers and killed some of them. We apologize for the incident”.

There were no other steps taken by the government regarding the incident.

Sinnaiyah Nallaiyah

“We lived near the Church at 8th milepost. My wife was a teacher. She had received a letter inviting her to Anuradhapura Education Department. So we were preparing to go there. We were not able to catch the bus. We planned to go by train. When we were at the station we heard the gunshots and we hid ourselves.

Nine SLA soldiers came there. They began to shoot randomly from the platform. Nine people were killed