Trincomalee students massacre 02 Jan 2006

Trincomalee students massacre 02 Jan 2006

The Gandhi statue at the junction in the Dockyard Road near the sea in Trincomalee is a popular spot for young men to gather in the evening for socializing. On 2 January 2006, many young men were gathered there. Some men who arrived in a three-wheeler threw a grenade at the gathering of the young men and then went towards the Fort. One St Joseph school student, Yoharasa Poonkulalan, was injured in this grenade attack.

As the other students were getting ready to take the injured student to the hospital, the Sri Lankan Navy that arrived at the spot began shooting at the students for 10 minutes.

The people at the seashore began fleeing in all direction. In the meantime, Sri Lankan Navy came towards the students, ordered them to lie on the ground and attacked them indiscriminately. Five students died in this attack. Another five students were seriously injured. This massacre was one of the few of massacres selected by the Sri Lankan Government for special inquiry under the supervision of an international monitoring group of eminent person headed by an Indian judge. The eminent person left the island in disgust in 2008 after losing confident in the manner in which the investigations were conducted.

Sukirtharajan, a journalist with the Tamil daily Sudaroli wrote a full length investigative article about the killing of the five students identifying the Sri Lankan Army as the culprit. He was shot dead on 6 January 2006.

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