Bloodbath on Vesak Day 29 years ago
May 14 marks the 29th year when the LTTE turned Vesak Day, most sacred to Buddhists, into a day of bloodshed and horror. It was not only the largest massacres of Sinhala civilians in a single day by the Tigers but also their first major criminal operation carried outside a predominantly Tamil majority area.
The terrorists hijacked a bus to enter the Anuradhapura city. As they entered the main bus stand they opened fire indiscriminately with automatic weapons killing and wounding many civilians who were waiting for buses. The Tigers then drove to the Sri Maha Bodhi shrine and ginned down Buddhist nuns, monks and civilian devotees within the shrine premises.
Before the LTTE Tamil terrorists withdrew they entered the Wilpattu National Park and killed 18 more Sinhalese in the forest reserve. Altogether the Tamil terrorists slaughtered 146 Sinhala men, women and children in Anuradhapura on that fateful Sunday.
Eighty-five civilians sustained serious injuries in the attack.
Later inquiries revealed that megalomaniac Prabhakaran had masterminded the dastardly deed hoping to create a communal backlash in the South with mob attacks on innocent Tamil civilians. He had expected a repeat performance of the July 1983 events but his hopes were dashed.
But where were the vociferous human rights activists and NGO and INGO peaceniks when this bloodbath took place? Compared to the hue and cry they have been raising every time Tamils got killed (NOT anti-LTTE Tamils of course) since 1983 the protests of these anti-war crusaders over Sinhala victims have amounted to little more than a whimper.
The reason is that to them Tamils are a politically salable commodity worldwide unlike Sinhalese, as we have seen from the comments and responses of the so-called international community since the anti-Tiger war ended five years ago this month.
671 Viewers
