Victims of IPKF Jaffna hospital massacre remembered 

The 37th commemoration of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital Massacre by the Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) in 1987 was held on Monday at the hospital. Hospital staff and attendees paid tribute to the victims by lighting flowers in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the attack.

Family members of the 68 unarmed victims, including 21 hospital staff and 47 patients, attended the event. 

The attack, carried out by the IPKF under the command of Lt. Gen. Dipendra Singh, was part of a series of mass killings in Northern Sri Lanka. The IPKF had been deployed under the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, which sought to bring peace to the region, but the massacre marked a tragic and violent episode in the conflict.

Among the victims of the hospital attack were three doctors—Dr. Sivapadasundaram, Dr. M.J. Ganesharatnam, and Dr. K. Parimalar and three nurses, Ramanathan, Sivapathiyam, and Leelavathy. The massacre also claimed the lives of other hospital staff including telephone operator Kanagalingam, work supervisors R. Krishnaraj, K. Selvaraj, and the hospital’s ambulance driver V. Shanmugalingam. 

Despite the passage of 37 years, no investigation has been conducted into the massacre, and no compensation has been provided to the victims’ families by either the Indian or Sri Lankan Governments. Soldiers responsible for this massacre were also never prosecuted by the Indian Government.