AG orders police to launch criminal investigation into 1987 Aranthalawa massacre

The Attorney General has directed the Acting IGP to record statement of the victim of the LTTE attacks on Buddhist monks in the 1987 Aranthalawa massacre.

Attorney General Dappula de Livera has also instructed police to commence criminal investigations and submit a progress report within two weeks, the AG’s coordinating officer said. 

The Aranthalawa Massacre took place on June 2, 1987, when a bus carrying several Buddhist monks and a few unarmed civilians was ambushed by 20 armed LTTE cadres near the village of Nuwaragalatenna.

LTTE cadres brutally massacred 33 Buddhist monks, most of them small Samanera monks, and four civilians. Three monks escaped the massacre sustaining critical injuries.

In June this year, Venerable Andaulpatha Buddhasara Thero who sustained critical injuries in the attack filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition before the Supreme Court seeking legal action and prosecution of living ex-LTTE members who were involved in the incident.