What Happened
Sampalthoddam is a village three miles along Mannar road from Vavuniya town. During early 1984, people were returning from a wedding in a privately hired bus. The SLA stopped the bus near Pambamadu and took all 70 people on the bus to a teak estate called Thekkavaththai.
There, the SLA sent the 15 women and children who were in the bus away and made the remaining 55 men look at the teak trees and then sprayed them with bullets.
The SLA then kicked the bodies that had fallen to see if they were still alive, those who made any noise in pain were shot again. One person fell to the ground in shock and was not hit by any of the bullets. Two of the men, who were shot, fell on top of him and died. He was thus lying in a pool of blood. When the SLA kicked his body he did not make any noise and the SLA thought he was dead too. When the SLA left, he ran to a village called Thalampokkanai.
Perpetrators
Sri Lankan Army
Sources & References
- NESOHR - Lest We Forget Volume I