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 prostrate in
Isha prayers. The attack is widely attributed to LTTE,
who denied their involvement in the massacre, and have never
retracted that denial.
Background
The
Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam, is a militant rebel organization which had been
fighting Sri Lanka since 1975 in order to establish a
separate state in the North and East of the
country. 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.
Incident
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.
Eye witness accounts
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,
Mohammed Arif, a 17-year-old student who also survived the massacre
told the New York Times:
Aftermath
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. 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.
See also
Some notable massacres in the eastern province of Sri Lanka during
the 1980s to late 1990s:
References
- Xinhua, 147
Muslims Massacred by Tamil "Tigers" in Sri Lanka, Colombo,
August 4, 1990
- Sri Lanka: The Northeast: Human rights violations
in a context of armed conflict
- The New York Times, Tamils Kill 110
Muslims at 2 Sri Lankan Mosques, August 5, 1990
- The
Times, Tamils kill 116 Muslims, August 13,
1990
- Associated Press, Tamil Rebels Order
Muslims to Leave City, June 17, 1995
- BBC News, Army
to protect threatened eastern Muslim town, June 24, 1995
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