Pottuvil massacre

The Pottuvil massacre was a disputed event in the Sri Lankan civil war. It happened on Monday, 18 September 2006, when 10 unarmed minority Muslim civilians who were engaged in clearing a reservoir at Rattal Kulam in Pottuvil in the southern part of the Ampara District in the Eastern Province, were attacked and killed. All the men were aged between 19-35 years of age; three of the men were decapitated and the others were shot or hacked to death by the unknown gunmen.

Initially a BBC report stated that some members of the community accused the Special Task Force of involvement in this incident. The local Muslim population staged protests demanding the removal of the STF (Special Task Force) Officer and they questioned how the LTTE could infiltrate into an area carrying swords kill 10 people and then leave without the STF spotting them and no encounter between the LTTE and the STF took place. Rauff Hakeem, the leader of the SLMC, initially wanted an international commission to probe the incident. However the sole survivor of the attack, Kareem Meera Mohideen, recuperating from grave injuries, identified the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the attackers. The South Asian Terrorist portal claimed that the LTTE tried its best, to wash its hands off the incident by blaming it on the STF.

Amid these accusations the government has acted irregularly. The ambulance transporting the only survivor was prevented by police from going to the hospital at a predominant Muslim town called Kalumunai. The ambulance was redirected to a hospital at a sinhalese dominated Amparai. At the hospital the survivor was held incommunicado by armed guards. Further the SLMM was prevented from talking to the survivor. Eyewitness also reported that the police destroyed crime scene evidence.