Jaffna medical staff massacred by IPKF remembered

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 16:48 GMT]
The staff of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Tuesday observed the 16th annual commemoration day of twenty one employees of the hospital who were massacred while on duty by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) on 21st October 1987, sources said.

The victims of the massacre included three leading medical specialists at that time, Dr.A.Sivapathasuntharam, Dr.K.Parimelalahar and Dr.K.Ganesharatnam, three nurses and fifteen other employees.

The soldiers of the IPKF, advancing from the Jaffna Fort to the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, shot dead the 21 staff inside the hospital even after they identified themselves as members of the medical staff, sources said.

A commemoration meeting was held Tuesday at the hospital premises with Mr.P.Mahendrathasan in the chair. A member of the staff, Mr.R.Pathmanathan, lit the flame of sacrifice and hospital medical superintendent Dr.S.Sathurmugam paid homage by garlanding the photographs of those killed, sources said.

Chronology: