Image: from the Killing the Travellers’ Documentary.
The Kaluwanchikudy Magistrate, on Monday (25), ordered the excavation of the Kurukkalmadam Mass Grave, located within the Kaluwanchikudy Police Division in the Batticaloa District, where people were allegedly massacred and buried by the LTTE.
On Monday (25) afternoon, Judge A.J.P. Ranjithkumar went directly to the suspected area and questioned the officials of the Office on Missing Persons and the complainant, Abdul Majeed Abdur Rauff, about the suspected area and inspected the location himself.
On the previous date, the Magistrate’s Court had ordered the Attorney General and the officials of the Office on Missing Persons to appear in the Kaluwanchikudy Magistrate’s Court on 25 August 2025. However, when the case was taken up on Monday (25), no one appeared on behalf of the Attorney General.
The Magistrate ordered the Police to cordon off the Kurukkalmadam site as a crime scene. He also observed that there was no obstacle to cultivating the land. On 13 July 1990, over a hundred Hajj pilgrims and traders from Kattankudy who were returning home after completing the Hajj pilgrimage were abducted, disappeared, murdered, and buried at a place called Kurukkalmadam on the Kalmunai–Batticaloa road. A victim, Abdul Majeed Abdur Rauff, had filed the complaint with the Kaluwanchikudy Police.
Ceylon Today/ By T.L. Jawfarkhan – Batticaloa