Massacres on 16th of january
Mulliyavalai massacre ‘1985

On 16.01.1985 At 4.00 am, the Sri Lankan military rounded up Mulliyavalai and arrested 17 Eelamtamils. One of them was a pregnant woman and another was a young mother of three children. Before they left, the military burnt down many homes. About 30 minutes later, people heard several gunshots. News started to spread that all the 17 people who were arrested have been shot dead. The villagers kept this news from the relatives of the 17 arrested.
A while later military vehicles started moving towards the Mullaithivu town. The relatives stared into the military vehicles looking for their loves ones. When their relatives did not return even the next day, the families, accompanied by a local Justice of Peace, Thiagaraja, went to the military camp in Mullaithivu.
There the families saw the bodies of their loved ones thrown on the ground. The bodies had no clothes on them. The hand, legs and heads were chopped off. There were many torture marks on the body. The body of one woman had many cigarette burns. When the families asked to take the bodies of their loved ones, the military demanded that the families sign a statement that those killed were terrorists. When the families refused to do this the military refused to hand over the bodies.
“The Sri Lankan military entered our home and arrested my brother and my mother and killed them both. The army said that they killed the people who were Tigers. One woman, Kumarasamy Vijayakumari who was 7 months pregnant was also killed. Many of us here were affected by this. Since this happened the day after Thaipongal festival, we do not celebrate Thaipongal any more”. – Pushparanee
Available names of victims (name, occupation, age)
Nagaratnam Sriskantharasa 35, Thambaiya Vivekanantham-Student 17, Sinnappan Annalaxmi, Home maker 35, Suppan Sinnan, Self Employed 40, Pilippaiya Yokarasa, Fisherman 17, Sellaththurai Kumarasami-Farmer 37, Sellaththurai Navaratnam-Farmer 38, Kumarasami Vijayakumari, Homemaker 27, Markkandu Thadsanamoorththi, Fisherman 19, Thambaiya Balasubramaniyam – Farmer, 30, Navaratnam Thayaparan, Student 15.
Yaalppanam – Manipay ‘2006
On 16.01.2006, Three women of the same family were shot dead by paramilitary troops (EPDP) who came in a white van in Manipay.
Two young sisters, Bojan Renuka, 30, and Bojan Shanuka, 23, and their mother Bojan Arthanageswary, 51, residents of a house in Mudaliyar Kanagasabai Road in Manipay, close to the Manipay Hindu College, Yaalppanam district, were shot dead on 16.01.2006, at 11.45 p.m. by gunmen, suspected to be Sri Lanka Army (SLA) intelligence operatives and members of Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) paramilitary, who entered the house and sprayed bullets at the residents, sources said. The father, Nagendran Bojan, 55, and brother Bojan Ullasan, 26, sustained gunshot injuries and are receiving treatment at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, medical sources said.
The gunmen shot the victims as they were coming down the stairs from upper floor of a two-storeyed house, sources said. The bodies of the three women have been taken to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital for postmortem examinations, medical sources said.Bojans is a maaveerar family and Renuka acted as the main character in a Tamil film “Amma Nalama?” (Mother, are you well?) produced by the Liberation Tigers’ film division Nitharsanam.
Mr Bojan Nagendram worked as the Director of Jaffna St John’s Ambulance brigade, and is also the Kankesanthurai district co-ordinator of Boys Scouts, residents of Manipay said. Mrs Bojan is the assistant Director of St John’s Ambulance Brigade. Ullansan teaches Mathematics at Jaffna Central College. Renuka, a graduate, is an English teacher at the Suthumalai Chinmaya Vidyasalai and her registration for marriage took place 15 December. Shanuka is a first year Arts undergraduate at the Jaffna Campus. The family was displaced from Kollan Kalladdi in Valigamam North and were residing in Manipay. (Tamilnet)
Artillery attack ‘2009
On 15-16.01.2009 Twenty Eelamtamils killed in Srilankan army artillery attack in Puthukkudiyiruppu, Chundikkulam and Visvamadu.
News link : https://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=28035

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