Tamils in Batticaloa and Jaffna remembered the 87 people killed by Sri Lankan security forces in the 1987 Kokkadichcholai massacre.
A remembrance event was held at a memorial erected for the victims of the massacre. The memorial was rebuilt and opened in May 2019, after the original monument was destroyed by Sri Lankan troops.
On January 27, 1987, Sri Lanka's Special Task Force and army officers raided a prawn factory in the village, shooting dead the workers, which including seven boys aged between 12 to 14. The killings have since been dubbed the ‘Prawn Farm Massacre’.
According to relatives of the victims, the night before the massacre, government helicopters were seen circling the area. On the morning of the killings, helicopters were seen dropping troops off, as they went on to slaughter dozens of Tamils.
When STF officers arrived, the workers were rounded up and their identity cards checked, as the officers searched for LTTE fighters. Some of the workers were then taken to nearby road and shot dead, whilst forty others, who had been hiding in a nearby farm were also killed. The bodies of those killed were burnt on old tyres, the relatives of the victims said.
Students at Eastern University also held a memorial event at the Pongu Tamil monument on campus.
Another event was held at the Tamil National People's Front's (TNPF) office in Jaffna, where a flame was lit and flowers laid in memory of those who were brutally murdered.
