Father in 12th year of search for disappeared son dies

The father of a forcibly disappeared Tamil died this week, becoming the eighth parent to die while searching for their child since protests began last year.

74-year-old Nagalingam Sathiyavageswaran passed away on Wednesday after being admitted to Jaffna Teaching Hospital with sudden chest pains on Monday.

Mr Sathiyavageswaran had been searching for his son, S. Rajivan who was abducted by white van outside the family home in Thirunelveli, Jaffna, in 2006.

The son had been abducted just 15 days after his marriage.

Giving a statement at the presidential commission’s hearings in 2014, Mr Sathiyavageswaran said a close friend had identified his son being transported in a convoy with dozens of soldiers and EPDP members, in 2013.

Like the hundreds of other families of the disappeared, Mr Sathiyavageswaran had engaged with all the domestic commissions and mechanisms that had been presented to them, and had despite ill-health attended protests by families of the disappeared in the past year.

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