Kattankudi Mosque massacre
Terrorism knows no religious sanctity, nor does it care for lives of
infants, children, women and clergy. This was once again proved eighteen
years ago when tiger terrorists cold-bloodedly butchered 147 Muslim
devotees, praying in mosques in the pre-dominantly Muslim town of Kattankudy, Batticaloa in the East.
The massacre at Kattankudy that shook the nation and drew worldwide
condemnation was meticulously pre-planned and executed in secrecy by
tiger terrorists who had disguised themselves as Muslim prayers and
entered the Meera Jumma and Husseinia mosques when hundreds of devotees
were attending Friday Isha prayers.
On 03rd August 1990, gun-carrying Tamil Tiger terrorists swooped on
Muslim prayers inside the holy KATTANKUDY mosque and butchered 103
Muslim prayers including over 25 small children. The dastardly mass
murder provoked condemnation from the international community.
On Friday August 4, 1990 over three hundred Muslims, men and boys,
were prostrate in prayer at the Meera Jumma Mosque, fifty yards from the
Kandy Batticaloa Road. None of them were armed.
It was seven twenty in the evening and the town of Katankudi was lit
up. The prayers went on when there was a power cut throwing the mosque
into darkness.
A stones throw away from the Meera Jumma is the smaller Hussainya
Mosque. There was a smaller gathering of approximately forty people here
-- prostrate in prayer too. The power cuut had been effected by the
large group of LTTE cadres on their murderous mission.
According to eye witnesses the raiders were dressed in battle
fatigues,others in sarongs and tee shirts. They drove up in several
white Hiace vans-- armed LTTE cadres.
A. I. Ismail was 55 then. M.M. Akbar was 16. Two men who survived the
attack as fate disposed and told the tale. It was appalling.
The most crowded place
In Katankudi the population is denser than in any part of South Asia
including Calcutta. In one and a half square kilometres live 50,000
people.In August 1990 there had been agitation in the Eastern Province
of Sri Lanka. Security was sparse and the Muslim and Sinhalese civilians
living in the area were exposed to the aftermath of Black July 1983.
LTTE attacks had accounted for 14 Muslims on August 1 in Akkaraipattu.
The dead men had their hands tied behind their backs with their own
clothes and then shot in the occipital (back) region of the head.Between
August 2 and 3 of that year, fifteen other muslims were killed in
attacks by the LTTE at Medawachchiya, Batticaloa and Majeedpuram. On
August 4 they hit Katankudi.
I found the streets of Katankudi bare and all the shops closed. First
impressions were that of a ghost town. Then when we reached the mosque
everything changed. "This is a 'hartal'. We have closed shops to mark
the ten years that our children and their mothers have suffered without
the bread winners of their families.
Some mothers lost very young children who had gone but to worship
Allah", the trustee of the mosque, a tall, bearded middle aged man says
in perfect English.
On the walls of the mosque are the marks left by machine gun fire.
The floor bears the markings of the grenades that were thrown at the
worshippers. We spend some time listening to the voices that are
strained with emotion.
Young children and women cling to the windows of the mosque and wait
to tell their stories.
Losses
Katankudi's narrow side streets are crowded with screaming children
at play in the hot soft sand of eastern afternoons. They are as noisy as
children anywhere in the world.
In 1990 Akram was the youngest most precocious at six, Ajimeel,
Jaroon and Rizwan, were 10, Asroof the only boy who was 11, Dalhan Haris,
Fauser Hassan, Arip, M. Ajimal, Makeen, Kamaldeen and Imtiaz were all 12
- Anas, Faizal, and M.B.Jawad 13 - Sameeen, Jaufer, Samath, Mohammed
Fauzer, Safar, M. S. M. Jaufer were all 14, Fazlan was the oldest at 15.
They went to the same schools and played together. Came to the mosque
and prayed together.
Each neighbourhood has its own little mosque to permit the faithful
to pray as mandated by the Word -- five times a day.
Then when the public address system sounds, calling the faithful to
prayer the streets empty in a few seconds. They come to the mosque and
wash themselves before every prayer. On August 4, 1990 they performed
the same ritual. In their innocence they knew that something was wrong
for attacks had been carried out on peace loving, hard-working Muslims.
The hour was grave. Everybody looked for Divine Intervention. The
LTTE were on the rampage murdering unarmed Muslim civilians. The men in
Katankudi had filed into the mosques and no one was on the streets to
warn of the danger that lingered.
Herded and shut inside
The witnesses say that while men stood guard at the doors of the
mosques latecomers were herded and shut inside. Then through the windows
they were mowed down, gunfire drowning screams of "Allah - hu -Akbar".
They were shot in the back, killed by men who respect nothing not even a
place of worship.
The Muslims continued to be attacked despite President Premadasa's
attempt to stop them by increasing the armed forces personnel in the
Eastern province.
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